Album:Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino Artist:Arctic Monkeys Label:Domino Genre:RockLet’s be honest: if you hadn’t pegged Alex Turner as one of the finest songwriters of his generation when Arctic Monkeys’ first album was released, you were in denial. Even at the tender age of 20, Turner’s talent as a wordsmith was undeniable, rendering the glut of soundalikes that came in their wake as cheap, inferior imitations. For their sixth album, that same lyric sheet is more oblique than ever before – and that’s not the only change worth noting. And yes, it goes without saying that Turner still has a way with words – even if most of these songs read more like esoteric short stories than ever before. It may not be the album that fans were expecting, true – but it is another fascinating chapter in the history of a band that continues to intrigue with every release.

Source: The Irish Times May 11, 2018 04:30 UTC