TRANQUILITY BASE HOTEL + CASINO
| Arctic Monkeys
TRANQUILITY BASE HOTEL + CASINO
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is the sixth studio album by English rock band Arctic Monkeys. It was released on 11 May 2018 by Domino Recording Company. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Pitchfork
2018 - Arctic Monkeys’ daring sixth album is a left-turn if ever there was one, but the way Alex Turner swaps witty sleaze for absurdist suave makes it a totally bemusing and fascinating listen.
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Rolling Stone
2018 - The adventurous British band put down their guitars for a weird lounge music detour
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Spin
2018 - The band’s sixth album is undoubtedly their strangest, most alluring release to date; none of its 11 spacey songs come even close to sounding like a proper single, never mind alcohol commercial soundtrack fodder.
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The Guardian
2018 - Sheffield’s finest swap earthy rock for lunar vibes. It could lose rather than win fans, but that may be the point…
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NME
2018 - this record feels a lot like gazing into the night sky. At first it’s completely overwhelming – you’ll be trying to connect the scattered dots on this initially impenetrable listen, and maybe even despairing when it doesn’t all come together. But when the constellations show through, you’ll realise that it’s a product of searingly intelligent design.
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Stereogum
2018 - Tranquility Base is a lyrics-first album if ever there was one, and those lyrics represent one lost train of thought after another.
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Vulture
2018 - offers neither the trademark sound of Arctic Monkeys nor the heartfelt, sentimental songwriting that has endeared the band to millions. It does offer crabby politics, delightfully ghoulish vocals, intergalactic intrigue, and a long list of follow-up reading and viewing materials
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Consequence of Sound
2018 - The band's weirdest album is a fun, flawed aberration
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Pretty Much Amazing
2018 - the best possible kind of average record, one that goes out swinging. One that goes for it on every level. A record that, although it isn’t great by any typical metric, is extremely curious and entertaining.
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Drowned in Sound
2018 - There’s plenty to enjoy and appreciate about Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino; the playing is dextrous and satisfying, the textures are gorgeous and the ambition on show is commendable
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Independent
2018 - a delve into the bizarre, where even the Steinway has its own character
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Irish Times
2018 - another fascinating chapter in the history of a band that continues to intrigue with every release
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DIY Magazine
2018 - Either genius, or the sound of a man unravelling.
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GQ
2018 - arguably the band’s most cohesive to date and certainly their most fascinating
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Indie is not Genre
2018 - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino leaves the listener relaxed and quite literally tranquil
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Medium
2018 - it gives me something new every time I listen to it
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The California Aggie
2018 - Listeners can hear the artistic intentions of Turner and the Arctic Monkeys, but the album’s ambitions reach a crescendo far too early, falling flat with similarity and simplicity.
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USA Today
2018 - a weird, often enjoyable stay
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GoldenPlec
2018 - As Arctic Monkeys continue to defy all expectations and dodge categorisation’s butterfly-pin, they introduce new streams of thinking into the popular consciousness. ... Turner has crafted eleven songs that stand apart from even his own singularity. A curveball-album that hits the bullseye.
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Beat
2018 - this is a collection of songs that work together as an all encompassing whole
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WBRU
2018 - So, while any given track from Tranquility Base might feel a little wonky, the project as a whole is quite (dare I say?) stellar.
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The Muse
2018 - This record is a grower, one that you need to listen to from start to finish, maybe even more than once, before you discover the treasures it’s offering behind its jarringly tranquil notes. But you’ll find them, if you want to.
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The 405
2018 - Arctic Monkeys take us to the moon on their cosmic and crooning reinvention
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Atwood Magazine
2018 - It’s lunar, and ethereal, and nothing like I was expecting.
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Exclaim!
2018 - Peruse the lyrics, dissect them and have a laugh. Commitment isn't as scary as you think.
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Music OMH
2018 - bands who change and evolve are usually the ones with the longest careers. It would have been very easy to pass off Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino as an Alex Turner solo project, but there’s something to be admired in the band’s sheer bloody-mindedness and gumption in changing direction so radically
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Pop Matters
2018 - an intriguing musical shift from Arctic Monkeys' wildly popular and massively dominating AM, but rooted in their style and progressive growth as musicians and performers.
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New Statesman America
2018 - If not embarrassing, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is concerned with embarrassment.
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Rock Haq
2018 - I’ve always found the most enduring albums don’t stun instantly, but gradually reveal their genius until the record is embedded into your psyche. On Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino, Arctic Monkeys have achieved just that.
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Sound Lab
1980 - It’s still about as 1970s as you can get (hell the concept of the album is basically just “what if we set Hotel California on the moon?”), but it’s a shift away from the sleek, groovy guitar rock of AM to a mix of piano heavy songwriting, active yet funky bass lines, and focus on the bizarre; a turn from Black Sabbath to Pink Floyd.
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Meaww
2018 - The follow up to the near flawless 'AM' is less fitting as an Arctic Monkeys album and more of a solo Alex Turner record which stumbles to find its footing as the band swerves left
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WPTS
2018 - So what exactly is Tranquility Base? Is it good natured schlock? Is it more lad-rock nonsense with a new coat of paint? Is it a cry for help? Is it a concept album about Batman? It’s all of this at once and as a result it ends up as an album that, for all it’s highpoints, never quite comes together as a coherent work and decides what it wants to be.
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Bullet Music
2018 - On their sixth record, Arctic Monkeys take chances, and the result is a potential end of the year contender for the most interesting rock album of 2018.
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Daily Bruin
2018 - The 11-track album allows listeners to appreciate the variety in the band’s musical abilities and sounds.
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UPROXX
2018 - But the cumulative effect of this album, unmistakably, is dread. Turner and company have created a sophisticated play-land to indulge their adult fantasies, whether they originate in the stars above or the stars of bygone Hollywood. But transmissions from the outside world keep seeping in, and they’re nonsensical and insane, and dull, and probably spell out at the end of the world.
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Gigwise
2018 - a joyous bit of escapism
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Happy Magazine
2018 - On Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino they show us that they are not prepared to rehash old ideas or survive on past glories. They have proven themselves capable of transformation, and in doing so, have suggested that they may be a great band rather than a band with some great albums.
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Junkee
2018 - With the release of Tranquility Base, we’re losing the spark — the electricity — that once ran through this band. It was clear that Turner wanted to tear down the very foundations of the Arctic Monkeys.
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Slant
2018 - Dystopia meets creature comforts on the sci-fi-themed Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino.
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The Musical Hype
2018 - there’s something endearing and refreshing yet vintage about this sci-fi, lounge-driven blend of alternative/indie and traditional rock. Alex Turner sounds fantastic for the most part, even if occasionally he’s a bit too indulgent in the weirdness.
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The Young Folks
2018 - it’s certainly the most stylish endeavor the Arctic Monkeys have ever made; Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino leaves a bittersweet taste in the mouth of the listener
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The Line of Best Fit
2018 - In truth, despite its being a bold sonic shift from AM, it’s something that’s already been done, and done much better, elsewhere.
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Riff Magazine
2018 - As the piano hammers pluck out beautifully simple melodies and the electric guitars return to their commanding riffs, Arctic Monkeys create a singularly strange and wonderful album that captures their amazing musicality and lyricism.
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All Music
2018 - Turner nails the concept, wallowing in warped dreams and painting widescreen soundscapes, but the foundation is wobbly; at a glance, it's impressive, but the slipshod details reveal themselves upon close inspection.
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Sputnik
2018 - Arctic Monkeys tell the punchline after they have told the joke
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Far Out Magazine
2018 - It feels as though the record could grow to be a defining transitional moment in an artist’s career, each song has a feeling that it holds more.
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Glide Magazine
2018 - In this age of constantly shifting morals, perceptions, and Tweeted rants passing for ideas, the Arctic Monkeys have now become one of the few bands that must be checked out with each release, as nothing seems beyond their grasp at the moment.
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Loud and Quiet
2018 - this is an album to luxuriate in, and that shouldn’t be overthought. Honestly, though, that’d do a disservice to the sheer ambition of it.
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Evening Standard
2018 - It’s a strange and seductive song cycle that’s unlikely to be anyone’s favourite Arctic Monkeys album, though Turner’s singular sci-fi vision shows he’s still light years ahead of his rock rivals.
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The telegraph
2018 - Songs are ephemeral, and not easy to decipher without listening to them repeatedly. Composing at the piano, Turner creates drifting tableaux of complex chords while musing on the distortions caused by the information overload of our era.
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Dead Press!
2018 - very theatrical in its production, and includes Turner‘s natural musicality
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The Gateway
2018 - The album is engrossing. It’s intense, intricate, clever, moving, and a vibrant sonic explosion. Lyrically, it feels like a stream of consciousness, with Turner singing line after line candidly.
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Renowned for Sound
2018 - this entire record fails to meet even the most basic of standards
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Alt Citizen
2018 - Arctic Monkeys have written something refreshing and weird, more their own, but not quite original—yet.
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WERS 88.9FM
2018 - With a combination of striking song titles, unusual lyrics, and background music that sets moods, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is a really smart album. Listeners can appreciate Turner’s desire to push boundaries in order to create music so unlike the norm.
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Mezzic
2018 - damn near as good as AM, or anything else the Arctic Monkeys have ever done
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Nu Sound
2018 - It’s has so many sounds and ideas that are almost there, but they never seem to reach full potential.
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The Sunday Times
2018 - It’s wilfully uncommercial but this surreal, bizarrely seductive album is a showcase for Alex Turner’s astonishing lyrical talent
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The Book of Man
2018 - In this sense Alex Turner is both John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the punk poet and the pop artist, and Tranquility Base… is by far the most successful expression of that talent so far.
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Spectrum Culture
2018 - A brand-reinventing excursion, a loose concept album full of quirky tangents.
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XS Noize
2018 - years from now, people will point to this as a seminal moment of the band’s career and a moment where Alex Turner rightfully accepted his crown as a lyrical genius
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The Yorker
2018 - Although this album is definitely more smooth and Americanised in its style and lyrics, Turner throws in the occasional ‘summat’ to show the band has not forgotten their Yorkshire heritage.
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Exposed
2018 - Sonically, Tranquility Base channels Pink Floyd’s more rhythmically funky moments (...) and David Bowie’s Young Americans cultural landgrab while throwing in a side-order of Bernard Edward’s bubbling basslines. It takes these elements and ferries them to Vegas to be married in the Elvis wedding chapel to Serge Gainsborough’s Histoire de Melody Nelson, but then insists at the altar that the Beach Boys circa Pet Sounds (...) be allowed to join the wedding night consummations.
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Humanized Blog
2018 - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is a fine wine, in that after you give it a couple of sips will you understand its full scope of complexity and learn to enjoy it for what it is.
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Joe
2018 - If you’re a fan of the type of music that requires multiple spins and a fan of learning new things about an album two months down the line, or even two years down the line, then Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is going to live with you for a very long time.
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Unclear Magazine
2018 - The whole record is an outlet for the bands’ creativity and perspective, and listeners around the world feel that energy as purely as the band does ... It’s new, it’s complex, yet it’s got the simplicity that reels listeners in for the long run.
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Metro Weekly
2018 - Their turn towards surrealistic jazz-inflected sci-fi concept album bears mixed results, but is at its best when played up for its inherent campy qualities. Although the album’s sound becomes a repetitive slog towards the end, it is if nothing else a fun new direction. Sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is an enjoyable, bewildering and decidedly un-Strokes-like mess.
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RSJ Online
2018 - The more you listen to it, the more it pulls you into its ornate, dizzying, otherworldly vacuum, the complicated design becomes clearer, the longer you look at it, it’s like chaos magic; the new albumwelcomes you into its own universe ...
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Soflo Sound
2018 - TBHC is definitely a great album. Its concept is unique for the indie scene, its lyrics and instrumentation are solid overall, and it’s a great nighttime vibe. While I do think this project will take a bit of time to settle with the average listener, the Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino is definitely a place you should take a visit to.
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Let It Happen
2018 - in 10 years ‘Tranquillity Base Hotel and Casino’ will be viewed as their masterpiece, and a modern classic in its own right
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Noisey
2018 - The grimy Sheffield romantics are back with an album that’s insular, moody, and straight-up weird.
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Louder Than War
2018 - Sit back and venture into the self-directed ballet of The Ultracheese and listen to the most ambitious album Alex Turner has written to date.
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The Student Playlist
2018 - Arctic Monkeys have released an album that features a taqueria in space, but also political commentary but also meta-textual narratives about the cultural place that the band occupies. It features Orwellian dystopian ideas that only Turner could possibly regurgitate with the amusing bravado that he does.
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Red and Black
2018 - It seems Arctic Monkeys have moved on from their past indie rock glory by transforming their sound into a lethargic mix of lounge with bits of pop and electronica sprinkled in.
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Ultimate Guitar
2018 - this new effort to change up their sound in "Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino" is a much more mature and honest direction that Turner and company steer towards
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Live 4 Ever
2018 - It’s always been easy to love or hate the Arctic Monkeys, but now you can’t ignore them, the pinnacle of achievement for stars in the grand tradition which this record upholds with equal shots of panache and glee.
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Cryptic Rock
2018 - another testament to Arctic Monkeys’ youthfully vibrant yet stylistically expanding musical ingenuity
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Bitter Sweet Symphonies
2018 - This album is for dissecting with a fine-toothed comb in the dark, over and over.
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Red Brick
2018 - All in all, Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino has it all, beautifully structured melodies and baselines, carefully crafted and perfectly delivered lyrics combined with an artistic audacity that tops it all off.
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Vulture Hound
2018 - The album sounds big, with the piano, drums and bass all complimenting each other in a perfectly eclectic way.
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The Friendly Critic
2018 - I always said that the new Arctic Monkeys album would be a shit Bowie rip-off.
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All Things Loud
2018 - It’s a creative project which you need to absorb in order to understand, a gathering of sounds which echo every single fiber of Turner’s thought process.
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The Current
2018 - a fresh direction and sound for Arctic Monkeys
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Chorus.fm
2018 - an album that I’m glad I was able to experience
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Vinyl Me, Please
2018 - it’s a concept album about making a concept album; it’s purposefully obtuse, and that’s what makes it superlatively riveting. It’s watching a band walk a tightrope off the tallest building on earth, and stepping off the rope on purpose.
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Diandra Reviews It All
2018 - Still, sonically, Tranquility Base thrives because Arctic Monkeys turn the dial to slower, more salient chords, synths, and vast strings like “Ultracheese”. Moreover, Turner’s voice continues to zip and beam like the force of nature it has always been.
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Kill Your Stereo
2018 I’ll just say it: this album sucks, okay? I tried to listen to it with a clear and open mind, trust me, I really did.
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Arts & Culture
2018 - The album is a definite change of pace, but thankfully not of quality.
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Backseat Mafia
2018 - Arctic Monkeys have discarded the unaffected sincerity of their early days and swapped it for a grey area of either pure genius, or simply pretentiousness dressed up as it.
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Flood Magazine
2018 - Tranquility Base is built like a Ridley Scott film—foreboding the bleakest of futures, yet you still desperately want to step right inside that realm and join the resistance.
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The Modern Record
2018 - It certainly gets them out of the band’s comfort zone; even the buzzing guitars of "Golden Trunks" seem to be part of the support crew instead of the main event. And the album flows in a way other Arctic Monkeys records couldn't quite latch onto.
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Evigshed magazine
2018 - it is The Artic Monkeys at its best. It is undeniably artistic growth. If you simply like music, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, is a record of enigmatic beauty and intense emotion not to miss.
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Decade Magazine
2018 - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is conceptually brilliant and showcases Arctic Monkeys at their most unconventional. While it may prove to be bitter listening for fans of the Sheffielders' stadium rock material, it will surely go down as a bold expansion in years to come.
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Immortal Reviews
2018 - Arctic Monkeys miss the mark with their stylistic change in Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Perhaps it's an album that'll get better with age, but for now it just sounds like a record that doesn't deliver what it sets up the listener for. It's all build up with no climax, and after awhile it loses its flair.
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Music Insight
2018 - nothing like we’ve seen before
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Guest List
2018 - With the album being such a perfectly encapsulated creation it’s very difficult to pick out individual tracks to discuss on their own.
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God is in the TV
2018 - Anyone wanting to hear a sad, funny, wordy and imaginative album about paranoia and alienation, however, is in for a treat.
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Beat Route
2018 - takes musical influence from the past and mixes it with soundscapes and composition techniques of the future, also discussing subjects of the present and where it’s headed. It’s a heavy album to ingest, but like a fine wine, you must savour every sip. Pay attention to every flavour, only then will you understand its richness in quality.
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The Skinny
2018 - He shares the ennui, dissociation, irony and unfulfillment of his particular celebrity destiny, coupled with a biting and original take on a more widely shared quotidian anxiety that listeners will note with nods and laughs and hums of recognition.
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Counteract
2018 - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is full of crooning, reflection and vivid imagination, and once the constellations connect, Turner’s most intricate piece of work will shine bright in the night sky.
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The Girls at the Rock Show
2018 - The album wouldn’t be the same without the subtle magic of Jamie Cook, Nick O’Malley, and Matt Helders. They may not be at the forefront but they equally deserve the acknowledgment. They’re like NASA’s Mission Control Center that supports Turner’s ongoing expedition through space, which was all thanks to a Steinway Vertegrand piano that his manager bought him as a birthday present.
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Vendor Culture
2018 - as one cohesive body of work it soars into the starry, obsidian corners of the universe as Turner intended
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The National Student
2018 - the product of a masterful wordsmith battling with his own subconscious. It’s an outspoken piece of work, designed to challenge its listeners with a more mature, complex, and evolutionary sound. Alex Turner and his band have grown up, and by God, so should we.
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Getintithis
2018 - It’s a truly astonishing, beautiful, divisive piece of work that demands multiple listens.
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Salute Magazine
2018 - The vibe stays the same throughout the entire record, but it does so in a way where it flows extremely well from one track to the next in a way that makes it feel more like a single grand experience rather than just a compilation of songs.
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Belwood Music
2018 - It’s not a complete abandonment of their roots, nor is it their crowning masterpiece; it’s the sign of a band growing whilst showing that they still have a lot of room left to grow further.
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Spinnaker
2018 - The record is clean-cut and boxed in, making the band hold back from their full potential.
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The Edge
2018 - A dramatic shift in style doesn't compromise Alex Turner's unquestionable genius, despite what much of the criticism will lead you to believe.
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Irish Examiner
2018 - not bad, but deeply baffling
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The Firenote
2018 - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is built on thematic statements and lyrical volleyball. The album succeeds on many plains because of it.
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The Five 10
2018 - a smooth, jazzy, worthwhile set of difficult-to-remember tunes that perhaps serves best if re-branded as “Alex Turner & The Arctic Monkeys”. If you’re in the moody mood for some neo-lounge, accompanied by Turner’s trademark stream of consciousness narration, then this one is for you.
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The Sound Board Reviews
2018 - To paraphrase one of their own lyrics, the album’s fucking wank and you won’t have a nice time.
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Karibu
2018 - it’s a clever turn that just doesn’t stick the landing
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RGM
2018 - I am impressed by how much I didn’t hate this record, and how much I find myself nodding in agreement with the lyrical sentiments and realising that… hey? This aint’ too bad.
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Vogue
2018 - A “banger” it’s not; what it is, though, is a new locked-arms, sway-back-and-forth, ivory-tickling, closing-time-singalong anthem for the ages—at the piano bar on the moon.
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The Wee Review
2018 - Monkeys set off into space, as Alex Turner takes firm control of the starship.
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Riot Magazine
2018 - The balls of it is admirable, and Turner proves he’s still capable of leaving hidden gems anywhere he goes, but it’ll take even the most die-hard fan a long time – and even more listens – before they’re able to get on board with wherever Arctic Monkeys are planning on taking us next.
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The Guardian, University of California San Diego
2018 - It rides the line between enjoyable and avant-garde.
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Clash Music
2018 - may feel alien and unwelcoming, you will gravitate ever closer to its shimmering outer-space treasures with each stay
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