The music world is gearing up for the release of Arctic Monkeys‘ sixth studio album, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, but it looks like we might not get what we’re used to from the band.
Speaking to MOJO Magazine, guitarist Jamie Cook has said the album is “definitely not a guitar-heavy record”, and could have well been a solo record for frontman Alex Turner.
“I think at first, because it was quite basic — piano, vocal and no guitar — Al was in two minds about, ‘Is this Arctic Monkeys, or am I going somewhere else with this?’” he said.
“And maybe at first I was a bit like that as well. It’s definitely not a guitar-heavy record, not typically what we’d do. It took a lot more thinking about.”
On top of that, it looks like the album is going to far more piano-driven, thanks to a Steinway Vertegrand Turner was given for his 30th birthday.
“I’ve tricked myself into writing — by sitting at the piano, doing this thing that I haven’t done before,” Turner said.
“That gave me permission to go somewhere I’d had trouble getting to before. It allowed me to put across how I feel more, more… broadly than before.”
This has been confirmed by an early review of the album in Uncut Magazine, who said the record was a “brave reinvention”, and gave some specifics about some of the tracks on the album. They said the song ‘Four Out of Five’ is a “Bowie-ish glam song” and ‘One Point Perspective’ is “musically a super-simple hip-hop beat”.
Of course, we already know that the very first lyric on the entire album references The Strokes.
We’ll just have to wait and see the rest for ourselves when Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is released on Friday, 11th May.
