Day 35 (April 23): Arctic Monkeys - The Ultracheese

Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino: Amazon.co.uk: MusicI gather that Arctic Monkeys' Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino was a wee bit divisive in certain parts. I mean, I get it. You don't hop from the peppy rock of club indie nights' dreams to weird 70s lounge lizard artistic self-indulgence within one album without rankling a few listeners. Equally, I'd be kind of lying if I said I knew how to tell every single track apart. So much drawling! So much melancholic piano.

Still, though, I feel sort of compelled to defend it, maybe because I like pretending my taste is special. And, secondarily, there are some pretty darn good tracks on there. Today's song of the day, "The Ultracheese", the album's closer, is one of those, and I will be accepting no arguments about this.

Whatever on earth Alex Turner was trying to do with this album, it works a treat here. "The Ultracheese" just puts you perfectly in the mindset of a man who genuinely believes he is a time traveller, looking fondly back on imagined friendships and missed opportunities from throughout his (fake) travels in history.

It just plugs very well into melancholy, and, to say something controversial, it's easy to slip into that kind of emotional state at the moment. I was thinking today about the missed opportunities I've had to say goodbye to all of the things that made my university experience bearable, and I think weird 70s cosplay Alex Turner would have understood.

 

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