THE ARCTIC MONKEYS ARE BACK!

You aren't a real person if the mentioning of AM and the overplaying of "Do I Wanna Know" brings back some of the truest musical memories of your life... or more realistically the incredible feeling you get when listening to Humbug. For five years, I've been waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel, for Alex Turner to awe me with more music (even though The Last Shadow Puppets blew me out of the water). And now, the wait is over.

This week, the Arctic Monkeys dropped their much anticipated album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Whispers of their comeback had been spinning around since their headline announcement for multiple upcoming musical festivals (including Lollapalooza!). The album is intended to be a concept album, as Turner explains in an interview:

"Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is a sci-fi adventure from a not-so-distant future, where the moon has been colonized, gentrified, and turned into a luxury resort."

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The album cover certainly captures the oddity of this idea. You can definitely pick up the motif throughout the songs in the album, which toy with minor-major tone play and an obscure mood. As always, you can pick up on the lyrical eeriness that characterizes this band.

Some personal highlights of the album are "Four Out of Five" and "Science Fiction." Both songs hold critiques about the Information Era. I'm not sure this album will have as wide-spread appeal as AM did, but I'm certainly enjoying it.

Stream the album now on Spotify!

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