Perhaps unsurprisingly, the new artwork for Arctic Monkeys album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is derived from sci-fi origins.
Frontman Alex Turner, who has already explained in some depth that the record has been inspired by his new-found fascination with science fiction, has explained how the visuals have derived from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Having designed the work himself, Turner detailed the origins of the Stanley Kubrick inspired work, he said: “The album artwork started from a picture that I saw of someone in the art department of 2001: A Space Odyssey, building the set for the Hilton on the moon,” in an interview with Radio X. “At this point, we’d already decided to call the album ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’, so we began to think of things that may be in the lobby of this place,” continued.
“The thing that I became most obsessed with that there was a model of the place inside the lobby. That’s where I focused most of my attention and time, not figuring out what the place itself looked like, but what the model of the place in the lobby would. I made the model,” he continued.
“It’s made of illustration board with a bit of dowel for supports. I sat it on top of a tape machine. The tape on the machine sitting underneath has the album on it, or an earlier version of it. Which seemed to make it all make sense to me.