Arctic Monkeys Announce New Album, The Car

U.K. indie-rock giants Arctic Monkeys are back with official word of their long-awaited seventh album. The Car, coming Oct. 21, features 10 new songs that were written by frontman Alex Turner, produced by the band’s longtime collaborator James Ford, and recorded at Butley Priory in Suffolk, RAK Studios in London and La Frette in Paris.

It was Butley Priory that had previously tipped the band’s hand regarding a new album in progress, revealing in a since-edited summer 2021 blog post, “We’ve had a band staying for the last month recording. Musicians love the acoustics in the Great Hall and Drawing room, with their huge vaulted ceilings, being serenaded while watering and weeding the garden, listening to the double bass, drums and piano wafting out of the open double doors, was pretty nice. Thank you, Arctic Monkeys.”

The Car is Turner and company’s first new album in four years, after 2018’s acclaimed “lounge act on the moon” LP, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (and 2020’s Live At The Royal Albert Hall). The follow-up “finds Arctic Monkeys running wild in a new and sumptuous musical landscape, and contains some of the richest and most rewarding vocal performances of Alex Turner’s career,” per a press release.

Though Arctic Monkeys have yet to officially release a single from The Car, they did debut a track live on Tuesday night (per NME), performing “I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am” at Zurich Openair festival in Switzerland. You can see that below, along with the details of The Car and Arctic Monkeys’ tour dates, and preorder the album here.

The Car Tracklist:
01. There’d Better Be A Mirrorball
02. I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am
03. Sculptures Of Anything Goes
04. Jet Skis On The Moat
05. Body Paint
06. The Car
07. Big Ideas
08. Hello You
09. Mr Schwartz
10. Perfect Sense