Why Arctic Monkeys' Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino Is a Masterpiece

the Arctic Monkeys sixth album saw them push their sound in a radically different direction after the success of a.m. but there were many fans around the world who are understandably alienated and confused by the world of tranquility base Hotel and Casino what did it all mean what was with all the lounge Jazz vibes whatever happened to that rock and roll Oh contrary to what many may think I think Arctic Monkeys have made an impressive sonic leap with tranquility base Hotel and Casino and if you give it enough lessons everything becomes clear eventually I am Luke Edwards and this is my review and analysis of tranquillity base Hotel and Casino [Music] welcome to the tranquility base Hotel and Casino a luxury lunar resort for ageing rock stars built on the same spot Neil Armstrong landed Apollo 11 back in 1969 this is a place where all the nights never happen and the days don't exist better yet the moon's largest crater Clavius as depicted in Stanley Kubrick's 2001 a Space Odyssey is at the epicenter of an overwhelming wave of gentrification a place where the wealthy elites are now finding sanctuary delving deep into the psyche of the hotel's troubled inhabitants it's clear all is not well for one thing the mass exodus from the earth to tranquility base Hotel and Casino is implied to be a harbinger for some kind of impending apocalypse back on our home planet where the shining cities are on the fritz and the chimes of freedom are falling to bits even the political sphere has been trivialized to the point where the leader of the free world reminds people of a wrestler and politicians in general are bendable figures with a fresh new pack of lies were still there appears to be a meteor strike on its way [Music] but let's start at the beginning the album opens with star treatment a song which introduces us to a washed-up rock star going through his own Elvis in Las Vegas phase of his musical career taking up residency as a lounge singer on the lunar surface [Music] the rock star in star treatment is like one of those immortal rock-and-rollers who is seemingly going to live forever for now however he's found himself on the moon in his twilight years he seems weary and admits he only wanted to be a ghost who haunts you in a rear view mirror today his star has faded but that was always going to be the case after all it takes millions of years for the light of a dying star to reach us and by that point the star may already be dead then there's the semi distracted singer in one-point perspective playing in a quiet room possibly in a drunken state [Music] rambling about forming a covers band and telling his audience how he's going to run for government in his underpants the singer is riffing onstage it's quite possible the coming apocalypse on earth has hit this singer the hardest tempting him to contemplate his own death [Music] the idea that people are coming to tranquility base Hotel and Casino to escape Armageddon is also hinted at in American sports the character comes across as smug when gazing down at the battleground states on planet Earth from his hotel room in outer space strange as it may seem he is handcuffed to a briefcase even though it has no money in it and he doesn't even have the keys to open it it's quite possible he's a musician with mafia connections who has escaped a life of crime on earth and is now living in some kind of self-imposed exile in his interview with pitchfork Alex Turner admits I like the idea of an underworld not necessarily in Las Vegas but somewhere in my imagination and that idea helped me to write the lyrics on the record the ex gangster in American sports now awaits his time in a virtual reality mask watching politicians fight in Parliament and consorting with God on video call to atone for his sins ultimately making it to the moon seems like an empty and hollow victory especially given that he has no reason to be so satisfied with himself maybe the fact that he's still alive is enough the title track tranquility base Hotel and Casino tells us its guests ponder all the questions but just managed to miss the mark so who is Marc you might wonder well here he is [Music] apparently written from marks perspective the song compiles observations markers made in his role as a hotel receptionist about his guests throwing in a few fragments of random conversations he's picked up on there's a man who claims to be Jesus in the Day Spa filling out a form and a lady called Mumma who pops out to sing a protest song and comes back wondering where it all went wrong then there's a lecherous pervert grappling with a young lady saying [Music] nothing however distracts mark from the job in hand [Music] meanwhile two lovers share a bed in a hotel room in golden trunks whispering into each other's ears just how much they fantasize about each other whilst making trivial observations about how the President of the United States looks like a wrestler the two lovers share an oddly intimate moment needless to say it's a fascinating insight into the eccentric kinds of people who reside inside this hotel the next song four out of five basically acts as a glassy double page advertorial spread promoting tranquility base hotel and casino reeling off reasons why guests should escape planet Earth an envision life on the lunar surface on a Saturday night dressed up in silver and white and performing hokey cokey with the opposite sex the whole song is intended as a satirical comment on modern marketing I guess even in the face of an apocalypse it looks like there's still an opportunity to sell you things it's also worth pointing out that the name of the taco restaurant on the roof the information action ratio is in itself a reference to Neil postman's amusing ourselves to death in that book the information action ratio is a theory which refers to how helpless people feel when they're bombarded with too much information and clearly there's an abundance of helpless people staying a tranquility base Hotel & Casino the idea of this lunar resort being a place of self-indulgence and mind-numbing entertainment comes across in the world's first ever monster truck front flip this is where Alex Turner's lyrics pivot to become more satirically acute passing comment on modern society's addiction to technology cribbing a slogan from an old Kodak advert it begins with an arpeggiated Farfisa organ and the song appears to explore people's infatuation with handheld devices as they wrap their tiny mind around a lullaby of brain shrinking moving images referring to a YouTube video of the world's first ever monster truck front flip at the 2017 Monster Jam World Finals it becomes quite obvious this song is about how the guests a tranquility base Hotel and Casino are enthralled to the pattern language of Technology they're addicted to pre occupying themselves with banal trivia and pointlessly a name digital dross things get slightly more dystopian in science fiction which describes a songwriter feeling rougher the disco lizard presumably nursing a hangover at the hotel he is creeped out by religious iconography he's seeing around him finding himself her ranked by religious fanatics preaching mass panic or a not too distant colony clearly the end is nigh so as more money is printed in a fit of quantitative easing the songwriter escapes by watching reflections in silver screen of strange societies he is painfully aware the machines have now risen and admits he's got the world in a wire in the pocket of his raincoat the narrator of science fiction attributes this reliance on technology to an apparent symptom of consumerist techno lust which only summons a swamp monster with a hard-on for connectivity I mean you know it might be to do with some other stuff I were reading and some of the films I was watching about and then the idea of I think it's startups from this song science fiction actually yeah which is on there Evan I think it start with the idea of science fiction and now it's often used all the the the the worlds that are created within it or you know the the the idea of space travel like you know time travel or whatever it might be is quite often it seemed to me by my estimations it was used to put out there an idea of actually about the world we're living in the psyche Rock freaked out of she looks like fun paints yet another picture of tranquility base Hotel and casino's idea of entertainment culminating in partygoers beaming virtual reality images into their skulls they celebrate the fact that [Music] this song could well be exploring the stupid antics the younger guests of the hotel get up to while dating each other and partying inside their virtual worlds Batphone seems to be set in a drinking establishment within tranquility base Hotel and Casino called tinsel City a place where everybody has been grandfathered in and life has become a spectator sport I almost see this place as being an old gentlemen's club of sorts full of people drinking at a bar reflecting on a memory from your youth with the songs narrator being a particularly cynical sort I launched my fragrance called integrity he tells us I sell the fact that I can't be bought clearly he's no fool but even he hasn't been able to escape the clutches of technology have I told you all about the time I got sucked into a hole through a handheld device he says whilst nostalgic about his life he reminisces about receiving booty calls on his Batphone from a past lover recalling the glow of her low beams as he looks out the panoramic windows over the lunar surface pining for her to call him once again full of hunky dory and Ziggy Stardust era piano flourishes a la David Bowie the ultra cheese rounds off Alex Turner's lyrical attack on social media and modern technology with a rather mellow album closer here one imagines a lounge jazz pianist on a Steinway piano crooning about how he still has pictures of his friends on a wall but he never sees them anymore hinting how social media can modify our friendships this singer is disillusioned by how his friendships have been impacted by the passage of time experiences which used to be part of the fun such as making spontaneous house visits or meeting friends for a drink in a bar now freak him out because they have been rendered empty and meaningless this is possibly due to how technology or fame has distorted almost everything in the singer's life warbling away about a place they called America in the golden age the singer remembers that when they were just trying to orbit the Sun admitting that I haven't stopped loving you once in essence this song seems to be Alex Turner's message to former friends he doesn't speak to anymore for whatever reason that may be but it also doubles up as a thought-provoking finale to tranquility base Hotel and Casino by bidding farewell so the doomed inhabitants of planet Earth as a loose concept album the Arctic Monkeys sixth LP marks the moment the British band have evolved from garage rock revivalists into a fully fledged art rock band the lyrics meditate on the illusory nature of Fame and express a desire for escapism as well as critiquing society's addiction to technology and wagging a finger at the distortive nature of social media conceptually the songs almost act as short stories about the lives of the people staying a tranquility base Hotel and Casino what I would say is I think you've got tranquillity bases and the song four out of five that are very much connected and and you know that's the style and the themes are obviously similar throughout the rest of the songs and you know more so I think then they never really it all seems like it's coming from the same place but it's still kind of episodic to a degree as well it's like eleven short stories but the collection of short stories takes its title from the fourth one or whatever really the characters Alex Turner creates allows him to dabble in space rock soundscapes celebrating his love of all things retro such as 60s and 70s art house cinema by combining his esoteric taste in films whilst still honoring his musical obsession with sultry Leonard Cohen Escalera sysm Turner sets it against a bedrock of low tempo psychedelic rock grooves musically tranquility base Hotel and Casino jettisons almost everything from a except for its affection for falsetto harmonies and the sci-fi theme is soundtracked expertly well by Turner's bandmates by introducing jazzy textures the Arctic Monkeys are certainly enjoying this experiment with synths and david axelrod style baselines the assertion that each song focuses on the inhabitants of tranquility base Hotel and Casino is a hotly debated one among some music reviewers as there are those who don't feel it holds up particularly well to scrutiny as a concept album however I actually think this LP is a remarkable evolution from the Arctic Monkeys earlier work with a fairly clever sci-fi concept and it will be interesting how they continue to develop this new musical approach for now tranquility base Hotel and Casino gives me plenty of confidence that the Arctic Monkeys will continue to surprise us for many years to come thank you for taking the time to watch this video feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments below and don't forget to Like and subscribe if you'd like to see more video essays about music like this one thanks for watching

Channel: British Music History

Views: 77,837

Rating: 4.9579964 out of 5

Keywords: arctic monkeys tranquility base hotel and casino, arctic monkeys tranquility base hotel and casino review, tranquility base hotel and casino arctic monkeys review, arctic monkeys sixth album, alex turner tranquility base hotel and casino, arctic monkeys tranquility base hotel and casino reaction, tranquility base hotel and casino arctic monkeys, arctic monkeys, tranquility base hotel and casino, tranquility base hotel & casino reaction

Id: UMQ_j1WJ6tk

Length: 17min 9sec (1029 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 10 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/maryambassad]

I need no videos

I need no clues

Tranquility Base Hotel And Casino is my anthem , my theme , my life

God bless you Mr. Turner

[u/amlosingmyedge]

you just made an awesome video, thank you very much, there are some aspects that I haven't realized. The editing is great too

PD:sorry for my english,it’s not my first language

[u/idealistmoon]

Fantastic Video! 👍😄 I loved your interpretation of the album

I always said this album will definitely get more love in the coming years.

It's a fantastic concept album I enjoyed the vibes, space, and glitter it was going for. As well love how they were trying to tie in the love of film, retro/lounge music, and space

It's such a great album the versatility, production, arrangement, songwriting perfect!

I only wished there were more music videos, but in a way I'm glad there wasn't so we may interpret the music our own way, which happens to me everytime I give it a listen.

It's such a satisfying album due to how much the band pushed themselves lyrically, music, and productions and took a risk. I enjoy seeing artist just experimenting and pushing hiw far they can go It's such an exciting time and makes me look forward to the future

Thank you Alex, Matt, Nick, Jaime, James, and everyone else in involved for creating this fantastic work.

A wonderful gift you've given us

[u/TomWalshy77]

Yes

[u/lerobinbot]

nice

[u/unexperienced_lad]

Just finished watching the video, honestly i really enjoyed it, I'm not a native English speaker so at some small parts i got confused on what you were saying, just small parts. Apaft from that the video was great, you explained everything perfectly and the editing was good. You got a like and a subscription, keep it up. Ill be anxious for a new video.

[u/almosthitbycar]

Great video, the intro makes me wish there was a movie based in the Tranquility Base universe. Would love to see more video essays like this, great work

[u/serocsband]

you're wrong about the concept btw

only 4/5 and TBHC share a story, confirmed by Alex

The rest are not part of a story

[u/hyperfridae]

i really liked the video! good job man!