Album Review: The Car by Arctic Monkeys

By Lewis Hall

Seeing the reaction to this album was certainly no unfamiliar feeling to me, as the discourse for every album of Arctic Monkeys‘ discography that’s been released while I’ve been a fan, from ‘Suck It and See‘ all the way to now, has generally stayed the same, albeit with some more critical success coming the way of their ‘AM‘ release. However, in a lot of circles, no matter what music they’ve released for the past decade, it’s never amounted to enough to please some. It’s seemingly the same people who come back to every album in order to berate it and lament their change of musical direction. As much as I have grown familiar with this process, I can only imagine the band themselves can consider this a monkey (pun intended) on their collective backs and must anticipate it at this point, which from my perspective, is exactly what ‘The Car‘ is about.

There’s a feeling from interviews and lyrics throughout the past decade that the person most acutely aware of Arctic Monkeys’ departure away from their initially successful Garage Rock roots is Alex himself (“All I wanted to be was one of The Strokes”, etc.). Although, unlike other creatives and artists who’ve found themselves in this common predicament of widespread nostalgia for an artist’s former output, he’s not so steadfast to defend the band’s recent creative direction. Where you’d possibly expect an artist’s inflated ego to suggest other people just don’t get it with a ‘get used to it or get fucked’ attitude, Alex cuts a very unsure figure that’s left equidistant between the music people demand of him and the music that reflects who he is as a person right now. When people reject the band’s recent output, I feel he takes this on as a widespread rejection of himself as a person, and instead of narcissistically defending it to the hills, he may be too sensitive for such rejection of his musical ideas.

However, this rejection manifests itself as the catalyst for what this album has become, with lyrical themes and musicality culminating together into this piece of what you could call remorseful insistence. Alex stated he came off the last tour amped up and eager to hop into the studio to make a new spangled rock record, however, during the process of writing songs, sensed the inauthenticity and projection of other people’s expectations and gratification mixing into his desire to create music. Say what you will about their current direction. Still, David Bowie said it best that “it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfil other people’s expectations”, and Alex Turner has come to the precipice of that and already stared into the abyss, with a part of him telling him to jump. Turning away from that abyss and continuing down the road laid in front of him while never being completely sure that this is the right direction is the sound which defines ‘The Car‘. Just because Arctic Monkeys have a vehicle with the means to go anywhere doesn’t mean they know exactly where they’re going with it, and that unsure nature encompasses this album.

The lyrical themes centre around introspection, self-doubt and acknowledgement of their past, kicked off immediately with “There’d Better Be a Mirrorball“, which cements the homage to the era’s that they’re emulating in the music while using a mirrorball as a metaphor for the process of self-analysis Alex takes himself through, as his identity splits into thousands of iterations through a disco prism. As a rock star, Alex has gone full circle, from the overwhelming and humble beginning to a projected caricature of opulent stardom with ‘AM‘, taking this character-based approach further with “Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino“, and now being left in a state of identity crisis. Who is the person that the audience love? Do they want him or do they want a character that doesn’t exist, an iteration of himself that is long gone? As much as he looks to take the advice of artist like Bowie, it feels evident he still needs to ask himself these questions, and rightly so, as the implication of their answers are an alarming revelation for anyone to make. Most artists would approach these questions with an unwavering confidence in themselves, as most of us would try to when having our entire persona questioned, however acknowledging the validity of these questions leads to a Pandora’s Box that few artists dare open.

(The Car_Arctic Monkeys)

“Yesterday’s still leaking through the roof” presents us with an all-encapsulating lyric which paints a representative picture of the entire album, identifying the past as a problem of the present, an inescapable feature of the protagonist’s current perception. “How’s that insatiable appetite?” feels like a pointed question directly at the audience, and despite not being entirely self-assured, they still have the capacity to throw these digs at those who require them to make the same music for the rest of their lives. If there’s any moment on the record which presents self-assurance of the current direction, both sonically and lyrically, it’s “Sculptures of Anything Goes“. The song provides the most transparent look into how Alex is fighting against playing to the gallery and appears at his least tolerant of the criticism levelled at the band. Almost taunting an audience that he knows are three songs deep into an album they’re ready to throw the same old kitchen sink at, or bought tickets to their upcoming shows just to cross their arms and yawn when they don’t play ‘the hits’. “Puncturing your bubble of relatability” comes with an air of smugness, fulfilling that role Alex is made to align with of an out-of-touch L.A. millionaire musician, all the while going “so what if I am?”. Combining these lyrics with the sinister droning Moog synthesiser help the band arrive at their planned outcome set out within the song, which aims to question whether they need guitars in hand to submit their work to the gallery, trapping said audience in an exhibit of their own making, doing away with distortion and presenting everyone with lush strings, odd time signatures and flangey licks.

Speaking of, the injection of some funkier shades of tone are an area where I think this record falls short. There’s two songs here that lean into that direction of “I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am” and “Jet Skis on the Moat“, both of which have moments of pure joy, particularly their choruses. However, Jamie Cook’s pentatonic noodling feels very low effort and is one of the few things of Arctic Monkeys’ that feels like it hasn’t changed much at all over the course of a decade apart from the odd pedal at his feet. A good song exists behind quite a sickly tone with both of these songs, of which Jet Skis On The Moat shines through completely despite the cloak of funky flanger, while it unfortunately sinks in I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am’s case.

(Arctic Monkeys_Credit: Zackery Michael 2022)

“Body Paint“, a song which slips outside of the thematic confines of the album as a whole to tell a story of Alex becoming aware of a cheating partner, closes the first half of this record. Musically, this still fits really well within the sound of this album, much inspired by 60’s and 70’s French and Italian film scores which present themselves clearly in elements such as the opening melody here, beautiful yet tense, alluring yet dangerous; a perfect representation of the song matter. While this song wears the inspiration for this album on it’s sleeve, it feels like a great amalgam between Arctic Monkeys: The Rock Band and Arctic Monkeys: The Auteurs and utilises some powerful guitar for a wonderful coda. This sonic relationship between the two sides of the band would have been welcomed into further reaches of the project, but as we’ve already addressed, The Car is about a lack of self-assurance, a man struggling with how his own identity and the art he creates intertwine and who the person at the end of the twist is. As much as this element provides fascinating themes and evokes unique feelings as a listener, it can very fairly be attributable to some of the album’s downfalls as well.

As has become routine with their albums at this point, the lads take the term deep cut literally and throw most of their singles at the front of an album, leaving a second half of some satisifying underrated croons like “Hello You” and “Big Ideas“, however most of this side of the affair I’ve felt little need to return to since my initial listens of the album. Even the songs on TBH&C that I listen back to and go ‘Did I really ever enjoy these?’ got a bit more longevity than some of the songs on here. Despite my fascination with the conditions in which the album was created, I do understand a lot of the criticism levied at the band for this album and although there’s a lot to like on here, a fair portion of it is far less memorable than any longplay Arctic Monkeys have ever released. Songs like “Mr Schwartz“, “The Car” and “Perfect Sense” define what mediocrity for this band means in my view and in the process of leaning away from pop-rock has failed to pick up a lot of the common denominators shared amongst all good music along the way.

I come away from this album with the lingering feeling that this would’ve possibly been a project for ‘The Last Shadow Puppets‘, as well as more positively received by audiences, although who am I to suggest who musicians create music with? The lack of validation to suggest that doesn’t change the feeling that the rest of the band have less input now more than ever though, with this project presenting an interesting journey into the psyche of a superstar while seemingly waylaying those around them. A fun listen from a critical perspective, with this possibly being the furthest I’ve looked into the meaning of a musical project, The Car tells a story that Alex needed to express to the audience of the band, although never packs enough of a punch he needed to define it’s statement. When all’s said and done, the honeymoon period for releases from one of my favourite bands can last indefinitely, and the one for The Car has unfortunately lasted barely two months. No amount of intrigue can stop me from being disengaged from a good half of this album, with a few highlights to be replayed for a while to come.

Highlights: There’d Better Be A Mirrorball, Sculptures of Anything Goes, Body Paint, Big Ideas, Hello You

Low Points: I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am, The Car

7/10