Arctic Monkeys released their highly anticipated seventh album on Friday (October 21), and fans have been left hugely divided. The Sheffield four-piece, who shot to fame with their breakthrough single ‘I Bet You Look on the Dancefloor’, are back with The Car, an ambitious, string-fuelled follow up to 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino.
Tranquility Base... – though becoming the band’s sixth consecutive album to debut at number one in the UK – proved hugely divisive among fans, who were split over the markedly different direction their music had taken from their previous albums. Its cosmos-inspired tracks were the polar opposite to 2013’s AM and its distortion-heavy hits like ‘R U Mine?’ and ‘Arabella’.
Though it is yet to be seen how The Car will fare commercially, it has instantly proved yet another divisive album amongst the harshest critics: the fans. NME described the album as “a swashbuckling, strings-fuelled epic,” awarding five stars for its “sharp songwriting, relentless innovation and unbreakable teamwork.”
