Arctic Monkeys have announced the opening of a series of pop-up shops located around the world.
The band return with their sixth album ‘Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino’ on Friday (May 11). In a four-star review, NME said the record “will reward deep-diving listeners – in particular, those with an interest in picking apart [Alex] Turner’s densest and most self-aware lyrics to date.”
There will be six stores open on the record’s release date and the rest of the following weekend, where fans will be able to pick up “unique and limited album and merchandise items”, according to the group’s website. Shops will be located in their hometown of Sheffield, New York, Sydney, Paris, Berlin, and Tokyo. More information on the pop-up shops can be found here.
Guitarist Jamie Cook recently revealed his reaction to first hearing Alex Turner’s initial demos for ‘Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino’. Speaking to Rolling Stone, he said: “I was blown away by the direction Alex had gone in. It took a few listens to even begin to, like… It was just, like, ‘Shit. What do we do with this?”
Turner, meanwhile, was asked in the same interview whether he thought the band’s move away from big guitar riffs was a “fuck you gesture”. “Maybe there’s a time and place for both that guitar riff and a fuck you gesture,” he replied.
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Arctic Monkeys returned to the live stage in San Diego last week (May 2). Over the course of two shows, they previewed five tracks from the new album – ‘Four Out Of Five’, ‘She Looks Like Fun’, ‘One Point Perspective’, ‘American Sports’, and the title track. On Saturday (May 5), the band also performed at the iconic Hollywood Forever cemetery in Los Angeles. Read the NME review here.