Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (stylised as Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino) is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Arctic Monkeys, released on 11 May 2018 through Domino Recording Company. The album was written by frontman Alex Turner in 2017 on a Steinway Vertegrand piano in his Los Angeles home. It was produced in Los Angeles, Paris and London by frequent Arctic Monkeys collaborator James Ford and Turner, alongside a wide array of guest musicians including Tom Rowley, Loren Humphrey, James Righton, Zach Dawes, Tyler Parkford and Cam Avery. Turner designed the album artwork himself, which depicts the eponymous resort with cardboard cut-outs and a tape recorder. Its title refers to Tranquility Base, the site of the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing.
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is a major departure from the band's previous guitar-heavy work, being considered less accessible than its internationally successful predecessor, AM (2013). It features a rich sound that embodies psychedelic pop, lounge pop, space pop, and glam rock, as well as elements of jazz. It also draws influence from soul, progressive rock, funk, French pop and film soundtracks of the 1960s. Instrumentally, it incorporates vintage synthesisers and keyboards, including organs, pianos, harpsichords and the dolceola, as well as the Orchestron, Farfisa and RMI Rocksichord. Baritone and lap steel guitars are introduced by the band on multiple tracks, in addition to the electric and acoustic guitars typically used by the band, as well as a variety of percussion instruments, including rotary timpani and vibraphones. Its lyrical content draws heavily from science fiction and film, touching on consumerism, politics, religion and technology. These topics are explored through the concept of a luxury resort on the Moon told from the perspective of various characters, such as the singer in the in-house band on "Star Treatment" or the hotel's receptionist called 'Mark', whose name is directly referred to in "Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino" (the title track) and many other times throughout the albums lyrics and visuals.
Despite its stylistic deviation polarising listeners, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino was released to generally positive reviews and was named the best album of 2018 by Q magazine. Nominated for the 2018 Mercury Prize, it received two nominations at the 2019 Grammy Awards: Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rock Performance for the single "Four Out of Five". It became the band's sixth consecutive number-one debut in the UK, the country's fastest-selling vinyl record in 25 years, and the band's third top 10 album in the US. It also topped the charts in Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Greece, Portugal, Scotland and Switzerland. Following its release, the album was promoted by the singles "Four Out of Five" and "Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino", as well as a global tour and multiple television appearances.
Background and recording The band's fifth studio album AM was released in September 2013 to critical acclaim, bringing the group new levels of commercial success globally. In April 2016, Alex Turner's psychedelic pop side project the Last Shadow Puppets released their second studio album Everything You've Come to Expect. A year later, Turner co-produced Alexandra Savior's debut album Belladonna of Sadness with James Ford. This was Turner's first foray into record production, with the two proceeding to produce Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino.
Following the international success of AM, Turner suffered from writer's block, and struggled to find a direction for a new album. Having written "Sweet Dreams, TN" from Everything You've Come to Expect, he lost interest in writing love songs, with a friend suggesting "not doing that for a moment". In early 2016, upon watching Federico Fellini's 1963 film 8½, Turner was inspired by its depiction of writer's block, childhood memories and the science fiction genre. He began writing songs for the album on a Steinway Vertegrand piano he received as a 30th birthday gift from the Arctic Monkeys' manager Ian McAndrew. He wrote and recorded the demos in a spare room of his Los Angeles home dubbed "Lunar Surface". During the process Turner recalled piano lessons he had received from his father at the age of eight, commenting that he "never thought [his father's influence] would find its way into [his] compositions as much as it has on this record". Many of the vocal takes included on the finished album originate from Turner's home demos on a TASCAM 388 8-track recording machine. Guitarist Jamie Cook commented that he "was blown away by the direction Alex had gone in" when Turner played him the demos in February 2017. Initially unsure how they would record the songs, the two discussed Turner releasing a solo album, but ultimately decided against the idea. Cook began recording guitar ideas to complement the demos, with bassist Nick O'Malley approving of the demo for "Star Treatment".
In September 2017, the Arctic Monkeys began recording material at Vox Studios in Hollywood and La Frette in Paris. Frequent collaborator James Ford co-produced the album with Turner. During these sessions the piano and guitar parts began to mesh, with O'Malley and drummer Matt Helders joining. Helders commented that during recording he played with more restraint than on previous records, noting that "it's about playing for the songs". Further recording sessions took place with Ford in London. The group employed a wide array of guest musicians. Ford and guitarist Tom Rowley, (who has served as a touring member of the band since 2013), contributed to several tracks. Drummer Loren Humphrey of Guards, keyboardist James Righton and pianist Josephine Stephenson contributed to "Four Out of Five", "Science Fiction" and "The Ultracheese". Zach Dawes and Tyler Parkford of Mini Mansions, and Evan Weiss of Wires on Fire also performed on "American Sports" and "The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip". Additionally, Cam Avery of Tame Impala contributed backing vocals to "She Looks Like Fun". The musicians performed together in a single room, influenced by images of the sessions for the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (1966), as well as Phil Spector's Wall of Sound production method. Parkford joined the band as a touring member following the album's release, whilst Avery also joined the Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino Tour as an opening act and guest musician at some shows.
Composition Musical style and influences
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is a departure from AMs guitar riff-driven work, resultant of Turner's usage of the piano over the guitar in its composition. It has been characterised as psychedelic pop, lounge pop, space pop, and glam rock. The album further incorporates influences from jazz, as well as soul, prog, funk, French pop and film soundtracks of the 1960s. Its sound has been described as "subdued, but warm and classic in the way that musicians who seek out storied mixing consoles aspire to", as well as "lush and claustrophobic". The melodic songs feature unconventional chord progressions, and often abandon the traditional "verse" and "chorus" structure. The album has been noted for its lack of distinct hooks, and its tendency to limit "casual consumption". Instrumentally, it incorporates vintage synthesisers and keyboards reminiscent of space age pop. Keyboards used on the album include organs, pianos, harpsichords and the dolceola, as well as the Orchestron, Farfisa and RMI Rocksichord. Multiple tracks feature baritone and lap steel guitars in addition to the electric and acoustic guitars typically used by the band, as well as a variety of percussion instruments, including rotary timpani and vibraphones.
The album has been compared to the works of David Bowie, Serge Gainsbourg, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Richard Hawley and Father John Misty, as well as Pet Sounds (1966) by the Beach Boys. Turner has cited Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971), Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man (1977), Dion's Born to Be with You (1975) and François de Roubaix's score for Le Samouraï (1967) as key influences. The album's drum and bass lines have been compared closely to those on Histoire de Melody Nelson, with the influence of Pet Sounds pervading the record, especially in its vocal harmonies.
Lyrics and themes
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is a concept album depicting a luxury hotel at Tranquility Base, the location of the 1969 Moon landing. The record is said to be one of the bands' most complex yet surreal lyrical, visual, and conceptual pieces, as the album refers frequently to science fiction, incorporating "hyperrealist satire" and "interstellar escapism" in order to explore entertainment's role in periods of social change: "the desire to escape into it, and the desire to create it". This is influenced by current politics in the United States, as well as consumerism, fame, religion and technology. The "forgetful, distractible oddballs" Turner embodies as his narrators frequently become distracted. The multiple unreliable narrators are "sometimes barely [able to] string a sentence together", and draw influence from lounge music. Turner uses multiple vocal tones to "embody" the different characters, with his vocal range incorporating both deep and falsetto singing styles. Turner's lyrical voice has been described as "absurdist suave", as opposed to the "witty sleaze" of his previous work, and has been compared to Argentine short-story writer Jorge Luis Borges. The lyrics are dense and self-aware and have been described as "endlessly quotable", written in a "rambling, stream-of-consciousness style". Turner cited various films as influencing the lyrics, including Spirits of the Dead (1968), World on a Wire (1973) and the works of Jean-Pierre Melville. Furthermore, the ideas present within the books Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985) by Neil Postman and Infinite Jest (1996) by David Foster Wallace inspired Turner's philosophical exploration of the human condition in contemporary society.
Turner commented that he took a different approach to writing lyrics than on previous albums, noting that he "became less concerned on this album [with] compartmentalising every idea to the point where each song became this episode that starts and ends in three minutes". Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen inspired this different perspective on each lyric's relationship with its context. He further noted that his writing on the album was straightforward in a way he considered similar to the band's debut Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006). On the connections between the two albums, Turner commented that "it's set in a completely different place, obviously, but there's something in the lyrics that reminds me of something in that writing. I'm tempted to say that it's something to do with how blunt it is. I think that was something I was trying to get away from, and perhaps I’ve returned to it now".
Songs "Star Treatment", the album's opening track, begins with a reference to American indie rock band the Strokes' early influence on Turner. On their impact, Turner commented: "The arrival of the Strokes changed what music I was listening to, what shoes I was wearing. I grew my hair out and borrowed my mum's blazer. I was a huge fan". Its chorus describes a fictional band named "the Martini Police". The track's narrator expresses surprise that somebody has never seen the science fiction film Blade Runner (1982). Turner has stated that this was based on real-life interactions, noting his interest in the fact that "it goes beyond: 'What do you mean you've never seen Blade Runner?' and gets to: 'Oh my God, I envy you!'". Musically, the track's glam influences have been analogised to "David Bowie descending on a lunar wedding". It has also been compared to the soul of Curtis Mayfield, with Turner's "debonaire" vocal delivery being likened to rapping.