Credit: Zachary Michael

James Ford explains how Arctic Monkeys album ‘The Car’ was intended to sound “bigger”

Tue 6 June 2023 10:39, UK

Arctic Monkeys producer James Ford has explained how The Car was planned to sound “bigger” before “the pandemic happened” which altered Alex Turner’s songwriting.

The Sheffield band’s seventh album was released late last year and marks their first release since 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Looking back at the making of the LP with NME, Ford said: “That album had a long gestation. There was an original attempt at making a record that was going to be bigger and more outward-facing”.

He added: “The pandemic happened, and [Alex Turner] went into his own bubble, returning with these beautiful, intimate, sad songs. We recorded in this country house in Suffolk. With the backdrop of the pandemic, it was nice to be together in a group and have that boozy camaraderie.”

Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders recently revealed that he was “pleasantly surprised” by the fan reaction to The Car. Speaking to the Dutch radio station NPO 3FM while on tour with Arctic Monkeys in the Netherlands, Helders told host Vera Siemons: “I think every time we do a record, and it may come across as a bit different to what we’ve done before, I’m always pleasantly surprised by the people who stick with us and come along for the journey”.

Helders added: “We liked before with what happened with Tranquility (Hotel Base & Casino) and I suppose it first happened with Humbug when it sort of shifted a little bit. It made us feel we could kind of do what we want as long as we were happy and proud of it and that people understand that, it’s always nice to see.”

In a four-and-a-half-star review of The Car, Far Out wrote: “Thematically, it’s a lot of cover shoots, travel-size Champagne flutes, and patent leather dancing shoes. In short, it’s a whirlwind of imagery that can bewilder, but more often than not, it dazzles.”

Listen to ‘There’d Better Be A Mirrorball’ below.