LOS ANGELES — Arctic Monkeys blasted out of the U.K. in 2006 with "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not," a scrappy modern-classic debut that framed the young quartet as a kind of transatlantic counterpart to the new wave of American garage-revival acts.
Seven years and a part-time move to Los Angeles later, the band conquered U.S. rock radio with the stomping and sexy "AM," which spun off hits like "R U Mine?" and "Do I Wanna Know?" (Current Spotify play count for the latter: 1.4 billion.) Now the Monkeys — singer Alex Turner, guitarist Jamie Cook, bassist Nick O'Malley and drummer Matt Helders — are two albums deep into their older-and-weirder phase: On "The Car," which came out last week and follows 2018's "Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino," Turner croons enigmatically about disco balls and snooker clubs over slo-mo psychedelic funk that suggests an otherworldly wedding band.
Which was actually a gig Turner, 36, took up recently when he serenaded a couple of just-married friends with Dion's "Only You Know" at their nuptials in L.A. "How'd you hear about that?" he asked a few days later over tea in a deserted Los Feliz bar. Told a guest had posted a clip of his performance on Instagram, he laughed and said, "Suppose it would be astonishing these days if that didn't happen."
