Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner has said that Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme’s contribution to his band’s new album ‘AM’ is “really exciting”.
Produced by James Ford and Ross Orton, the new Arctic Monkeys LP features appearances from Homme plus former The Coral member Bill Ryder-Jones and Elvis Costello’s drummer Pete Thomas.
Speaking about Homme’s contribution to ‘AM’ with Zane Lowe on BBC Radio 1 earlier this evening (June 24), Turner said: “The Josh thing was very much a case of one of us returning a back scratch to the other… he came down and sort of got us out of a little rut. It’s just fun, it’s friends, extended family now – [they] came round, had a fun night. His contribution to our record is really exciting, it’s probably my favourite. The 30 seconds that he’s in there is just, I dunno, it’s like something that I’ve never heard before. Not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but you know what I’m saying.”
Turner also explained that he stole the name of his band’s new album ‘AM’ from The Velvet Underground. “I actually stole it from the Velvet Underground, I’ll just confess that now and get it out of the way. The ‘VU’ record, obviously,” he said. Speaking further about the album title with Lowe, Turner joked: “Did we cop out? Yeah!” He added: “Summat about it feels like this record is exactly where we should be right now. So it felt right to just initial it.”
He continued of the album’s direction: “The record sort of started with ‘R U Mine?’ really. [We] discovered something through the recording of that tune that we thought was worth exploring. ‘Do I Wanna Know’ was the first thing we found along that road.”
Arctic Monkeys today (June 24) announced details of their new album. The album, the band’s fifth studio record, will be released on September 9 and feature 12 tracks including the new single ‘Do I Wanna Know?’. The song ‘Mad Sounds’, first played at the Hultsfred festival in Sweden earlier this month, also appears alongside 2012 single ‘R U Mine?’. Scroll down to see the full tracklisting for ‘AM’.
Arctic Monkeys headline Glastonbury festival this Friday (June 28), performing on the opening day of the festival on the Pyramid Stage. Drummer Matt Helders has said that the band plan to “have a bit of fun” with their setlist at the festival on what will be the second time that the band have headlined the Pyramid Stage, following their appearance in 2007. “I’m prepared for what it entails in way, but I think in terms of preparation we can mould a different kind of setlist for it and have a bit more fun with it,” said Helders.
The ‘AM’ tracklisting is as follows:
‘Do I Wanna Know?’
‘R U Mine?’
‘One For The Road’
‘Arabella’
‘I Want It All’
‘No. 1 Party Anthem’
‘Mad Sounds’
‘Fireside’
‘Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?’
‘Snap Out Of It’
‘Knee Socks’
‘I Wanna Be Yours’