Arctic Monkeys: The Car [DOMINO]

Why you'll love it

This edition was pressed in Canada for Domino. The Car was shortlisted for the 2023 Mercury Prize, nominated for the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album, and was the UK's third best-selling vinyl album of 2022.

This edition

• Pressed in Canada
• Domino edition

About the album

Alex Turner started out wanting a song that could close a show and ended up with a whole album that sounds like the last scene of a 70s film. He wrote it at home in Los Angeles and in Paris, then the band recorded it in Suffolk, Paris and London with longtime producer James Ford, and Bridget Samuels helped arrange the sweeping strings.

It picks up where Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino left off, with lounge pop, baroque pop, funk and soundtrack drama in the mix. "There'd Better Be a Mirrorball" opens in slow-motion heartbreak, "Body Paint" builds to a wailing guitar finish, "I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am" struts on a wah-wah groove, and "Sculptures of Anything Goes" broods over synths. "Hello You" survives from the earliest sessions at La Frette, and the title track drifts by on a cinematic guitar figure. Turner's lyrics circle nostalgia and show business, and his croon has never sounded more assured.

Matt Helders took the cover photo: a white Toyota Camry, alone on a Los Angeles car park roof. It remains the most glamorous thing ever to happen to a Camry.

Also at Kops: more Arctic Monkeys on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Domino (cat# WIGLP455), the 2022 album.