News May 19, 2018

Arctic Monkeys have smashed a 25 year sales record with ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’

Last week, Arctic Monkeys released their enigmatic sixth-album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Whilst the album has seen the band abandon their riff-heavy garage rock beginnings, it’s pepperings of David Bowie-esque lyrical stylings, lushing, warbling instrumentals and meandering structures have signified a new maturity.

The band chose not to release any singles from the album in the lead up to its release – to say anticipation was high is a slight understatement. Teasers involved an album cover, a 30-second sci-fi leaning taster video and a few promo shots of the band, so naturally, divided opinions stormed social media as soon as the album hit streaming services.

Now, with the Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino, aside from further cementing their status as one of modern rock’s most musically accomplished acts, they’ve continued their stride of totally smashing sales records. The album now holds the title as being the fastest-selling vinyl LP of the last 25 years in the UK, selling 24,500 vinyl copies sold within its first week.

The record was previously held by Liam Gallagher with his 2017 release As You Were, which sold 16, 000 copies in its first week.

In addition to breaking this record, according to the Official Charts Company, the album marks the band’s sixth consecutive number 1 charting album.

In a recent interview with BBC Radio 1, Alex Turner admitted his embarrassment at older Arctic Monkeys lyrics, saying that whilst listening to old records in preparation for tour, he often questions his previous thinking.

“I think sometimes that can be helpful. In preparation for going on tour, we flicked through some of our old records,” he said. “There were a few lyrics that went by where I thought [wincing noise], ‘Don’t know what you were thinking there. Probably leave that one out now.’”