Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner lists the songs that inspired new album Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino
The musician was listening to a wide range of artists while writing the group's sixth record
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Your support makes all the difference.Alex Turner has shared the music that inspired him as he wrote and composed the sixth studio album from Arctic Monkeys.
The Sheffield quartet will return with Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino on 11 May, their first record since 2013's chart-topping AM, early reviews of which are teasing it as a sci-fi style piano-composed effort akin to Last Shadow Puppets' sophomore record released in 2016.
The frontman was listening to a whole array of artists including Nina Simone, The Three Degrees and French musician Serge Gainsbourg while writing Tranquility Base which Turner himself describes as an album where he's “having a word with [myself], intermittently, throughout all 11 tunes.”
He names Leonard Cohen song “Dress Rehearsal Rag” as the inspiration behind the protagonist of the new record's title track and credits Dion's “Born to Be With You” as one of his “favourite records of all time.”
He also revealed he's been listening to the podcast of David Axelrod, the Chief Strategist behind Barack Obama's presidential campaigns.
Speaking to MOJO, Turner said: “I’ve tricked myself into writing - by sitting at the piano, doing this thing that I haven’t done before. That gave me permission to go somewhere I’d had trouble getting to before. It allowed me to put across how I feel more, more… broadly than before.”
You can find a full list of the songs Turner cited in MOJO below.
Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino will be released through Domino Records on 11 May
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