Arctic Monkeys Drive Fans Crazy with New Song & Album

Indie rock legends, Arctic Monkeys, have finally announced a new album! The band gave the first glimpse by playing a new song at a concert in Zurich, Switzerland on August 23rd. The song, entitled “I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am”, is a funky, disco-esque anthem that is consistent with the Monkeys’ abstract lyricism and unique riffs. The song seems to be a callback to their last album, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (2018). In fact, drummer Matt Helders said in an interview with Mike Dolbear for DrumathonLIVE 2022 (interview begins around 46 minutes), the upcoming seventh album “picks up where ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’ left off”. Listen to “I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am” below:

As for touring, the four-piece has been making stops mostly outside the United States and the UK. However, the group will make a couple of stops here in the U.S. in Las Vegas, NV, and Los Angeles, CA in September. As for the setlist, it seems that the band will be changing it up and fans hope to hear more of the new album live. Regarding this, frontman Alex Turner said in an interview with Big Issue, “It’s quite mysterious, to me, right now…the setlist and what the order of that should be…”. As they have with every album, the Sheffielders are going to announce a tour for the new album and we hope to see them more here in the US!

The album title, cover, release date, and tracklist were all announced on August 24th. The album, entitled The Car, will be released on October 21st. The album cover and tracklist are shared below. The band started their work on the new album back in August of 2021 with long-time producer James Ford at a converted monastery in Suffolk, called Butlery Priory, then RAK Studios, and La Frette in Paris. Arctic Monkeys’ choice to use the unconventional studio was inspired by legendary British rockers. According to Turner in the Big Issue interview, “There’s a bunch of Led Zeppelin and Stones records where they were in this house in the country and then they went and sorted it all out and overdubbed it elsewhere.”

Unlike TBH&C, “…sci-fi is off the table. We are back to earth…” Turner said in the Big Issue interview, “I think we’ve got closer to a better version of a more dynamic overall sound with this record. The strings on this record come in and out of focus and that was a deliberate move…There’s time the band comes to the front and then the strings come to the front.” He also added that the album is “…louder this time.” The seventh album comes out 20 years after the band’s formation and 16 years after their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. So far, each album has reached the #1 spot in the UK charts, it’s easy to predict The Car will have the same success.

The tracklist:

1. There’d Better Be a Mirrorball
2. I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am
3. Sculptures of Anything Goes
4. Jet Skis on the Moat
5. Body Paint
6. The Car
7. Big Ideas
8. Hello You
9. Mr Schwartz
10. Perfect Sense

To pre-order the album, click here.