Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

イギリスを代表するロック・バンド、アークティック・モンキーズが約4年半振りとなる待望のニュー・アルバム『トランクイリティ・ベース・ホテル・アンド・カジノ』をリリース!
前作『AM』がアメリカでプラチナムセールスを記録、全世界で約500万枚を売り上げるなど大きな成功を収めた彼ら。本作は、2作目『フェイヴァリット・ワースト・ナイトメアー』(全英1位/オリコン洋楽1位)以降すべての彼らの作品に関わってきた、シミアン・モバイル・ディスコのジェームス・フォードとアレックス・ターナーの共同プロデュースで制作。ロサンゼルス、パリそしてロンドンにてレコーディングされました。新たな音楽的地平を探求した結果、アレックス・ターナーの広いクリエイティヴヴィジョンを反映した大胆でいて素晴らしい作品が完成!

Rolling Stone - "[A] lounge-pop concept record set in a casino piano bar on the moon. Turner romances his Steinway, tapping influences like French crooner Serge Gainsbourg's oily Sixties ballads..." Spin - "The band's sixth album is undoubtedly their strangest, most alluring release to date....Guitars take a backseat to twinkling keyboards and zero-gravity ambience..." Entertainment Weekly - "TRANQUILITY, with its baroque piano pop and arch, Bowie-esque flourishes, somehow manages to blaze whole new avenues without losing the core essence of the U.K. foursome's musical DNA." Entertainment Weekly - Included in Entertainment Weekly's "The 20 Best Albums of 2018" -- "[The album] trades in glittery Bowie-esque glam, Serge Gainsbourg swing, and baroque space-jam psychedelia." Uncut - "Turner's long tried to ape Nick Cave and Dion, but on the likes of 'American Sports' and 'Golden Trunks' he hit upon a style of noirish, plastic-soul balladry all his own." Billboard - "Arctic Monkeys' latest serves as a direct line into Turner's innermost thoughts....A testament to the band's ever-evolving nature, proving that reinvention might be the key to longevity." NME (Magazine) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] fleshed-out, Bowie-esque statement of excess and grandeur. Lavish strings populate `One Point Perspective', and album closer `The Ultracheese' is one of the band's finest collective achievements to date..." Pitchfork (Website) - "[A] left-turn if ever there was one, but the way Alex Turner swaps witty sleaze for absurdist suave makes it a totally bemusing and fascinating listen." Clash (Magazine) - "Shelving stadium-ready indie rock in favour of a sparkling vintage cosmic voyage, this record marks the Monkeys' first step into a surrealist universe..."

It was inevitable that Alex Turner would incorporate the loungey swagger of his busman's holiday the Last Shadow Puppets into his main gig of the Arctic Monkeys, yet the soft louche touch of Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino comes as something of a shock. Chalk it up, perhaps, to the fact that Turner was a mere 32 years old when he unleashed Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino onto the world, a young age that seems older because Arctic Monkeys released their debut when he was just 19. Throughout Tranquility Base, Turner comes across as if he were much, much older than his actual age, cocking an eyebrow to a potential paramour who has the audacity to have never seen Blade Runner, and reminiscing about the '70s -- a decade he never saw. He may have been born at the height of Brothers in Arms, but Turner fetishes the swinging sci-fi '60s, winking at futurism while acknowledging that its starry potential has curdled in the digital age. Tranquility Base hints at these dashed dreams in its stylish soft contours, which are neither retro nor modern: they're hung suspended between these two extremes, sounding precisely like Alex Turner while never touching upon the frenzied, heavy roar of the Monkeys. Perhaps it's easy to miss that youthful punchiness, but the expansive aural horizons of Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino suggest there are plenty of avenues for Turner to steer Arctic Monkeys into a fruitful middle age. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

表現とは進化するものなのだと、アークティック・モンキーズの6枚目となるこのアルバムを聴いて思い知らされた。ここでは〈何を歌うか〉と〈どう響かせるか〉が高度なレヴェルで共存し、どちらが欠けても実現しなかったであろう独特の詩情を生んでいる。また、曲単位で聴くのではなく、一枚を通して味わいたいと思わせる緩やかなコンセプト感も見事。人類が移住した月面にあるリゾート・ホテルのハウス・バンドのような風情で、アメリカの歴史やデジタル化した社会、それでも変わらぬ人間の生態が、低音を活かしたドリーム・ポップ風のサウンドで描かれていく。今回アレックスはピアノでの作曲に初挑戦。ヴィンテージのスタインウェイが作品全体のムードにも濃厚な影響を与えている。
bounce (C)妹沢奈美