About

In July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the moon. The journey had started four days earlier in Florida, and culminated with the two astronauts landing at a prearranged site Armstrong named ‘Tranquility Base’. You know the rest: they planted a flag, bounced around a little and Armstrong gave that quote about a making a “giant leap for mankind”. Arctic Monkeys’ sixth album, whose name is inspired by that landing spot, is not quite as towering an achievement as putting a man on the moon – but consider this the band’s boldest step yet. “Giant leap”? Fuck, we can barely see them from here.

The band have wilfully pivoted through each era, from scrappy upstarts on their early records, to desert dudes on ‘Humbug’, through to rock gods on ‘AM’ in 2013. But this is the Arctic Monkeys like you’ve never heard them before. If you’re here looking for banging festival-sized anthems, you’ll be sorely let down. But if you want the goss on what is undoubtedly the band’s most intriguing record to date, step right this way. - NME