James Ford, producer and solo musician, revealed that the initial plans for Arctic Monkeys', The Car, would have seen the record be more "outward-facing."

Ford shared with NME that the album was supposed to be "bigger" but changed direction when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

"The pandemic happened, and (Alex Turner) went into his own bubble, returning with these beautiful, intimate, sad songs. We recorded in this country house in Suffolk. With the backdrop of the pandemic, it was nice to be together in a group and have that boozy camaraderie."

Turner himself echoed this, saying that they had originally planned, "to write louder songs than we had for some time."

However, this changed quickly as the band discovered that the songs they had written were much more than just heavy riffs. "I think what I found myself wanting to play when the band were around was actually very surprising to me," Turner said.

"I think that’s the key difference maybe with (The Car) and the last record… perhaps we didn’t quite have a grasp of the dynamics of the bigger, newer sounds we were exploring," Turner said. "But playing together live again certainly helped us to get there, and we developed a better awareness of each other. You find yourself in a different place when you take the songs to a new setting beyond where they were recorded."

Arctic Monkeys closing Electric Picnic's Main Stage 2022. Photo Copyright: Miguel Ruiz

The album, heavily orchestrated and filled with enigmatic songs of love, longing, and doubt, portrays the new direction Alex Turner is seeking to take with Arctic Monkeys. The Sheffield outfit used the album to hammer home its core belief that the simplest truths are the hardest ones to discover.

Currently, Arctic Monkeys are touring the UK, after which they will headline day one of Glastonbury festival. The band are set to play Marley Park in Dublin shortly after on Tuesday, June 20th. Tickets can be found here.