Alex Turner says Arctic Monkeys "are still shuffling the deck on the setlist" ahead of Reading and Leeds set

24 August 2022, 15:22 | Updated: 24 August 2022, 15:30

Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner in 2022 — Alex Turner has talked about Arctic Monkeys' evolving setlist . Picture: ANP / Alamy Stock Photo

By Jenny Mensah

The Arctic Monkeys frontman has talked about the band's evolving setlist and teased the sound of their seventh studio album.

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Alex Turner has discussed Arctic Monkeys' setlist and their relationship towards their back catalogue.

The Sheffield outfit returned to the stage earlier this month and have announced their seventh studio album The Car, will be released on 21st October.

The band debuted their first track from the album, I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am, at Zurich Openair festival last night, leaving fans to speculate whether they'll hear any more material at their Reading and Leeds sets.

Speaking to Martin Compston for The Big Issue the frontman mused: “It’s quite mysterious, to me, right now, at this moment in time, the setlist and what the order of that should be".

He added: “This time has passed over the last few years and certain things don’t feel the way you expected them to anymore. That sounds sad, but it’s not. There are just certain things that represented certain moments in the past that now feel like something else, so they should be somewhere else. I’m still definitely very much working it out.

“It’s exciting to perform again,” he added. “But we are still shuffling the deck on the setlist."

Arctic Monkeys press 2022 — Arctic Monkeys have returned with a brand new album for 2022. Picture: Zackery Michael

Turner also spoke about the sound of their upcoming record and told Compston although strings feature heavily in the new record, the band are out of space when it comes to their subject matter and firmly on the ground.

"... On this record, sci-fi is off the table. We are back to earth," he teased.

"I think we’ve got closer to a better version of a more dynamic overall sound with this record,” he told the outlet.

"The strings on this record come in and out of focus and that was a deliberate move and hopefully everything has its own space. There’s time the band comes to the front and then the strings come to the front."

When Compston praised the album's Hello You track and said There Better Be A Mirrorball had "Bond villain overtones", Turner replied: "It’s a response I’ve had to other things we’ve composed,” adding: “this idea of something sounding ‘cinematic’.

"I never completely subscribe to it, but it’s louder this time.”