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

21 October 2025, 17:00

Arctic Monkeys on There'd Better Be A Mirrorball

By Jenny Mensah

We take a look back at when Alex Turner and Matt Helders spoke to Radio X's John Kennedy how their seventh studio album and its lead single.

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Arctic Monkeys The Car album was released on Friday 21st October 2022.

The seventh studio album from the Sheffield rockers was yet another gear-change for the band, seeing them experiment with sweeping strings and cinematic themes to create a sprawling soundscape.

Ahead of its release came There'd Better Be A Mirrorball - a reflective and mournful breakup track, which the band explained was "the cue" for everything on the album.

The single might see Turner at his rawest yet, but what made it the catalyst to Arctic Monkeys' The Car album?

Find out below...

Arctic Monkeys - There’d Better Be A Mirrorball (Official Video)

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Three years ago, 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 song's rather wordy and cryptic title, Turner said: "It was almost going to be, Their Bedding In A Mirrorball, which is not without merit..."

He mused: "Is it too late [to change it]?"

Watch the special album track by track here:

Arctic Monkeys - The Car: Track By Track

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

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."