Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys): Submarine (10", soundtrack) [DOMINO]

Why you'll love it

Alex Turner's only solo record: six hushed, gorgeous songs written for Richard Ayoade's coming-of-age film Submarine, produced by James Ford with strings arranged by Owen Pallett. "Piledriver Waltz" later turned up, reworked, on Suck It and See.

This edition

• 10-inch EP, 6 tracks
• Original film soundtrack songs
• Produced by James Ford, strings by Owen Pallett

About the EP

When Richard Ayoade (yes, Moss from The IT Crowd) needed songs for his debut film, a wry, tender coming-of-age story set in a small Welsh seaside town, he asked his old friend Alex Turner. What came back were six quiet little gems that sound nothing like the Arctic Monkeys of the time: acoustic guitar, brushed drums, piano and strings, with Turner crooning softly about love and confusion like a lost '60s troubadour.

James Ford produced, Canadian violinist Owen Pallett arranged the strings and Bill Ryder-Jones lent a hand, and the result is an EP that fans of Turner's later, crooner-era work treat like a sacred text. "Piledriver Waltz" got a full-band makeover on Suck It and See, but this is where it started, and "Stuck on the Puzzle" might be the prettiest thing he's ever written.

Also at Kops: more Alex Turner on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Domino, first out in 2011.