Arctic Monkeys: "The Car"

I’ve been a massive fan of the Arctic Monkeys for many many years, I’ve seen albums

and tours come and go, but I can confidently say that not a single one of their records has done it for me the way this one has.

The band’s seventh studio album, The Car, was released on October 21, 2022; and it is

nothing short of a masterpiece. I’ve just sat down to write this exactly a month later, simply because I needed that much time to fully digest the album. There are truly not enough words in the English language to describe it. From top to bottom each track is completely breathtaking. With a lot of the records that have come out recently, I, unfortunately, find myself almost bored after about the third song. But this album is the furthest thing from boring.

The Car kicks off with the first single: “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball”, which reminds

me a bit of something we would’ve heard on their previous album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. I remember listening to this track for the first time alone in my car, and let me tell you, the full-body chills I got when those strings came in… this song damn near sent me to another universe. “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball” does a fantastic job at setting the tone for the rest of the album, I think it absolutely deserved to be the lead single.

As the album progresses you’ll find they use strings quite heavily. Now, if when you hear

the name Arctic Monkeys you think of songs like “Arabella” and “Do I Wanna Know” off their 2013 release AM, the idea of strings might sound a bit strange to you, and I don’t blame you. When most people think “rock album”, they don’t necessarily think of an orchestral accompaniment; but the strings on this record work absolutely perfectly, and are largely why it’s become my favorite Monkeys release.

“I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am” is unlike anything I’ve heard from the band before.

It’s got such a cool groove to it; it’s funky yet melodic, with an almost Peter Gabriel meets Royal Philharmonic sound. It doesn’t make sense, which subsequently, makes it make perfect sense.

In “Sculptures Of Anything Goes” lead vocalist Alex Turner sings the lines “Puncturing

your bubble of relatability with your horrible new sound, baby those mixed messages ain’t what they used to be when you said ‘em out loud” to which many fans (including myself) have speculated is alluding to the backlash they received on Tranquility Base Hotel. Many former Monkeys fans that were around for some of their earlier records heavily scrutinized the album, seemingly due to the fact that they were essentially expecting to hear another version of AM and weren’t down for the new, more lyrically cryptic nature of this era.

I’d like to go ahead and jump to the title track; “The Car” is my absolute favorite off of

the album. This track as a whole is just absolutely gorgeous, sonically and lyrically. The use of imagery is stellar and that tone on the guitar that comes in about two minutes in just about brought me to tears. I cannot say enough good things about this specific song, just overall stunning.

“Big Ideas” has an overwhelmingly melancholic feel to it. The lines “The ballad of what

could’ve been” and “But the orchestra’s got us all surrounded, and I cannot for the life of me remember how it goes” paint such strong pictures. It feels as though Turner is reminiscing on the early days of the band. Earlier I mentioned the scrutiny that their sixth studio album faced, to me it seems he’s possibly referencing that, and the fact that he’ll never be able to recreate those early albums that everyone loved so much, even if he truly wanted to. Not to get too pretentious here, but personally, these last two albums have been everything I could’ve wanted and more; they’re unique, and I think too many modern artists in this industry are looking to mass-produce radio hit after radio hit, but what I love so much about the Arctic Monkeys is the fact that they don’t seem to care about what’s popular right now, or what will make the Top 100 List. They’re making art for the sake of making art, which is rarely seen nowadays.

The album wraps up with “Perfect Sense” a gentle reminder that I think all of us could

use every once in awhile, to slow down, that life isn’t a race. To take a second and appreciate where you are, at this very moment. I think oftentimes we get so caught up in our own success, and we keep searching for more; searching what’s next, searching for what’s bigger; that we forget to just slow down and take it all in for a second. This track is genuinely so beautiful and emotionally intelligent, it was the perfect way to end the album.

The Car as a whole is one of, if not the most exquisite albums to come out this year. It

has not only solidified itself as my favorite Arctic Monkeys album, but also one of my favorite albums of all time. It’s definitely not your typical rock record, but I would encourage anyone to give it a listen, and to go into it with an open mind.