Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is the sixth studio album from indie rock superstars, Arctic Monkeys, and it is also one of their more polarizing releases to date. Front-man Alex Turner recorded most of the demos for this album at his Los Angeles home, and composed the majority of the songs on a piano, rather than a guitar. This curious approach to recording a highly anticipated follow-up to a successful record in AM, followed by a lengthy hiatus, just added to the mystery of the album as a whole. Additionally, the unique promotional approach of keeping the entire record under “lock and key” by not pre-releasing any songs prior to the street date only helped with challenging listeners to absorb the entire album, rather than a couple of singles taken out of context.

The general themes found throughout this album are of science fiction, self-reflection, politics, religion, and even technology itself. The sound that Arctic Monkeys have achieved here can be best described as modern “lounge pop,” reminiscent of stylistic artists such as Father John Misty and David Bowie. Even though the majority of these songs were written and composed by Alex Turner himself, and even though it was initially suggested by his bandmates he self-release the album under his own name — due the complexity of how to add the other instrumental parts around the piano/vocals — this is still an Arctic Monkeys album. The rest of the band has enhanced the piano-driven direction of this record by creating an album worthy of your full and undivided attention.