release date: May 11, 2018
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,82]
producer: Alex Turner, James Ford
label: Domino Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Star Treatment" - 4. "Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino" - 6. "Four Out of Five"
6th studio album by Arctic Monkeys released after a five-year hiatus and produced by composer, vocalist and guitarist Alex Turner with James Ford, who has been in the producer seat on all of the band's releases except the debut - just as Ford was on Turner's last project: The Last Shadow Puppets' second album from 2016 Everything You've Come to Expect. The cold monkeys have come a long way since the brilliant AM from 2013 and so has Mr. Turner. He has always been the undisputed leader of the band, but here he is not only part of the production-team, he has also written all songs and dare I say: turned Arctic Monkeys into a Turner-project. Stylistically and sound-wise, this has much in common with The Last Shadow Puppets most recent album. It sounds like over-polished lounge-like chamber pop and psychedelic pop with Turner crooning like a new-born American jet-setter in his modern aristocratically mumblings about right and wrong.
The album received positive to luke-warm reviews. I find it quite boring and even less interesting than Turner's Shadow project. To quote Alexis Petridis of The Guardian: "The problem is that a smart guy is sometimes all Turner seems to be. The songs can feel like less than the sum of their parts: a selection of one-liners, wry observations and knowing winks to camera that leave you struggling to work out what he’s driving at – and wondering if he knows, or cares – and to locate any real emotional connection or impact." It leaves me as indifferent as when listening to Bowie's last album Black Star from 2016, and Alex Turner has never sounded so much like Bowie as he does here.
Not recommended.
[ allmusic.com, Uncut 3,5 / 5, 👎NME 4 / 5, 👍The Guardian 3 / 5, Rolling Stone 2 / 5 stars ]
