On Oct. 21, 2022, popular British band “Arctic Monkeys” released their eighth album by the name of “The Car.” On Spotify, the album’s least popular song is sitting at about ~4 million plays, and the most popular song is currently at almost 32 million. Two of the album’s songs had previously been singles, both releasing on Sept. 29. Being their first release in four years, fans were excited to hear it’s release. 

The first song of the album was previously a single called “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball.” A very slow and groovy beat introduces the album with lead singer Alex Turner talking to himself. He had growing feelings for someone he knew would be temporary and believes it isn’t like him to do that. He also introduces a duality where although it is self-destructive of him to do so, he wants to enjoy every last moment of this fabricated romance until he can’t anymore, wanting one last dance under a disco ball until the music fades and he’s thrown back into the reality of the situation.

“Body Paint” is a bit more bouncy with the beat, a slow drum and guitar mix with the vocals cleanly. As with many of their songs, the words of their vocals need more thinking to truly understand what is being said and this one is a bit more confusing to understand. The first two lines of the song are “For a master of deception and subterfuge you’ve made yourself quite the bed to lie in.” This potentially paints whoever Turner is singing about as a cheater or someone who he generally doesn’t think he should trust. After calling them out , this person starts crying and Turner doesn’t feel bad because he was wronged by them. 

“Hello You” is a prime example of how odd the lyrics can be on the surface level. The first line of this song is “Lego Napoleon movie.” Only through reading an interview did I find out that Turner was imagining a Lego movie style of a script about Napoleon written by the same guy who wrote “2001: A Space Odyssey.” It goes deeper though, as apparently this was a way for Turner to reflect on the actual creative songwriting process he goes through with every song, being proud of himself for having much more fanciful lyrics now as compared to some of his past works. This line would be a mystery should it not have been in an interview. This was the main thing I focused on, the beat is okay and it doesn’t feel drawn out. 

“Mr. Schwartz” is a sequel to a song that was never made. In 2019, Turner was running through ideas in a studio session and a character was made. However this idea never truly came to be as in 2020, COVID-19 hit and everything the band was doing was either slowed or paused entirely.  Finally, he addressed this character as an invisible “backstage handyman” that Turner believes is behind some of the songs he creates. He imagines that he is walking around with a ladder on a grand stage making sure lights are working and other general things. It isn’t exactly integral to any of the songs but it helps with the general atmosphere of the songs. 

“Sculptures Of Anything Goes” has a beat that feels like it would be building up to something grand in the middle of a song, but instead we wait for its peak at the end. This song is Turner’s way of addressing either a love interest or an ex and their issues. The way I interpret this song was that he is on the road a lot, and that meant he had to leave this person behind. Even though he left, he still is thinking about them. 

“I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am” has a nice electric guitar accompanying a solid beat. The song’s lyrics are very much up in the air with interpretation, but I believe it portrays Turner in a scene of a party that he doesn’t feel like he belongs in. The lines “Let’s shake a few hands, blank expressions invite me to suspect I ain’t quite where I think I am,” further put forward that idea. The rest of the song talks about flying formations and seeing both islands, any guess as to what he is referring to is as good as the other. I like this song the most because it has these orchestral bits which bring the energy of the song up beautifully.

This whole album numbed the comprehensive part of my brain. The amount of double meanings to lyrics was admittedly impressive, but also very much not my style. That doesn’t mean it was unlistenable, the beats of the songs were simple but also good at not making the songs a bore to listen to. Maybe I would’ve enjoyed it more if I didn’t feel the need to pick apart all the lyrics, but also I wouldn’t say it was their best work. In their past albums I’ve had several songs of theirs in my main playlists but I don’t think any of the ones on this album are really going to make the cut. With that in mind, I’d have to give it a ⅗.