Arctic Monkeys: There'd Better Be A Mirrorball was the "cue" for everything on The Car album

21 October 2022, 13:30 | Updated: 28 December 2022, 13:10

By Jenny Mensah

Alex Turner and Matt Helders told Radio X's John Kennedy how the lead single was a springboard for the sound and feel of their seventh album.

Arctic Monkeys have revealed how There'd Better Be A Mirrorball was "the cue" for everything on their new album The Car.

The Sheffield rockers released their seventh studio album on Friday 21st October, and Alex Turner and Matt Helders sat down with Radio X's John Kennedy to discuss the record in a special Track by Track album playback.

Asked how he started composing the album's lead single, the frontman replied: "With the introduction - The classic place to start! That was the first thing that was written for the record that I really had the feeling was worth following."

"It feels like a theme or something," he continued. "Then the discussion became, I suppose, how to wrangle that into a pop song, which I think by the end of the song, it feels as if you've arrived in that territory."

Listen back to Arctic Monkeys' Track By Track of The Car with John Kennedy on Global Player

Quizzed if the cinematic ballad set the tone for the rest of the album, the rocker reflected: "I think so. Even just the intro does that for me. I think that was really the cue for everything that came after that within that song but also everything else on the record."

He added: "Everything else on the album had to be able to hang out with Mirrorball. That was that."

Joking about the track's rather wordy and cryptic title, Turner said: "It was almost going to be, Their Bedding In A Mirrorball, which is not without merit... Is it too late [to change it]?"

Listen back to Arctic Monkeys' Track By Track of The Car with John Kennedy on Global Player

Listen to Arctic Monkeys on John Kennedy's X-Posure Track by Track album playback this Friday 21st October from 11pm. Picture: Stephano Broli/Radio X

Arctic Monkeys' The Car, which is out now, also includes previously released tracks Body Paint and I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am.

Talking about achieving a certain "mood" across the whole release, Turner reflected: "That's something that we've been trying to do all along. Maybe we got a bit closer to that last time (on Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino) and now hopefully it feels like it's all pulling in the right direction."

Asked if there's a lot of discussion as the band work through the process of making an album, Turner revealed: "I don't think excessively so, no. I think most of this stuff in this process comes down to instinct at the end of the day and always has done."

Listen back to Arctic Monkeys' Track By Track of The Car with John Kennedy on Global Player

Stream The Car album in full below:

See Arctic Monkeys' The Car tracklisting:

There’d Better Be A Mirrorball
I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am
Sculptures Of Anything Goes
Jet Skis On The Moat
Body Paint
The Car
Big Ideas
Hello You
Mr Schwartz
Perfect Sense