Arctic Monkeys announce seventh album ‘The Car’

Arctic Monkeys have announced details of The Car, their anticipated seventh album.

The latest record from the Sheffield group will arrive on October 21, with the announcement coming hours after they debuted new track ‘I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am’ at a festival in Switzerland.

Produced once more by long-time collaborator James Ford, The Car features ten new songs written by frontman Alex Turner and was recorded at Butley Priory in Suffolk, La Frette in Paris and RAK Studios, London.

Speaking to The Big Issue in the band’s first interview of the year, Turner said the record leaned away from the intergalactic lounge-pop sound that was explored on their last record, 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino.

“On this record, sci-fi is off the table. We are back to earth”, Turner said.

“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 and hopefully everything has its own space. There’s time the band comes to the front and then the strings come to the front.”

The record, which consists of ten songs, also sees the band indulging their love of off-kilter and surreal titles once more. You can check out the tracklisting in full below.

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’

As for the recording process, Turner explained the band’s decision to decamp to a Suffolk priory was inspired by rock and roll lore.

“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,” he said.

“We went there in the summer, took all the equipment, got the raw material and then took it on elsewhere.”  

The deluxe LP edition of the forthcoming album will be available to buy on limited-edition grey vinyl with a tip on sleeve and a mounted gloss cover image via Arctic Monkeys’ official web store.

An exclusive, custard coloured LP will also be available for fans at independent record shops and HMV stores. Fans can also access The Car on standard LP, CD and cassette, as well as on streaming platforms.

Arctic Monkeys will play Rock En Seine in Paris, France next (25 August), before headlining Reading and Leeds Festival this weekend for the third time.

After that, the band will perform more Europe dates at Cala Mijas Festival in Malaga, Spain, MEO Kalorama in Lisbon, Portugal, and Electric Picnic Festival in Stradbally, Ireland. You can find all dates and tickets here.

Drummer Matt Helders previously spoke about their upcoming new album in November last year. “We tend to always move it on a little bit. For us, because we’re so involved in it, it always makes sense,” he said during an interview for DrumathonLIVE 2022.

“It kinda like picks up where the other one [‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’] left off musically,” he explained.

“I mean, it’s never gonna be like ‘R U Mine?’ and all that stuff again, you know, the heavy riffs and stuff.

But there are riffs in there and [it’s] a bit more up-tempo, even though it’s not loud,” he added. “It’s hard to explain!”