It took five years for the British group Arctic Monkeys to return with their sixth album. A period when frontman Alex Turner - former chronicler of the shabby pub life in Sheffield - not only turned 30, but also received a Steinway grand piano from a good friend at his birthday party in his new home in Los Angeles. He wrote the songs for Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino on this piano. No wonder that
… this time it was not a guitar record but rather an album in the vein of the orchestral sixties pop that Turner makes with his hobby band . Fortunately, he is still sharp-tongued, in biting speech waterfalls like Star Treatment and Four Out Of Five. Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino is a tastefully arranged retro pop album. Who would have thought that this characterization would ever hold true for the noisy and pimply band that brutally turned Britpop upside down in 2006. (MR)more
