With lavish orchestration, grandiose dynamics and a crooning falsetto, echoes of Scott Walker and early 80s David Bowie, Alex Turner’s writing and delivery enters a new and fascinating phase of enigmatic, melancholy maturity. The fast and furious indie Arctics of 2006’s debut Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not appear to be long gone, but that title has remained true to Turner and the constantly morphing previous six previous albums, including 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, which seemed to herald The Car. One trendsetter and standout for this album has fractured relationship theme with a Walker drama about it. Big Ideas is a darkly humorous insight into the lost-in-translation process of song concept between home and studio: “ I had big ideas, the band were so excited/ The kind you'd rather not share over the phone / But now, the orchestra's got us all surrounded / And I cannot for the life of me remember how they go.” I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am mixes has echoes of Bowie’s Let’s Dance / Nile Rodgers era, while the wah-wah guitar and delivery on Jet Skis On The Moat has echoes of Bowie’s Win from Young Americans, with more of this on Body Paint, with scathing attack on a body tanner. The title track has a particularly romantic, nostalgic feel, with images of a lady at the kiosk, grandfather’s guitar and that “it ain’t holiday until you go up to fetch somethin' from the car.” An album that takes its time, with growing power and hidden depths. Out on Domino
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