Shan Piercy

You can’t be prepared for this album. And when you listen to it, even as a diehard AM fan, you might not like it. That being said, take the emotion of Humbug and AM, mix in the lounge elements of Tranquility base, and tie up three fingers randomly on Jamie Cooks hand so that he can’t play much and when he wants to he has to try really hard, and you have The Car. That’s not to say Jamie never plays, and I’m sure he was involved in other elements of production just like Tranquility Base, not just sticking to guitar and guitar alone, but the guitar is very muted throughout the album. Jamie is proud of this album though, so don’t feel sorry for him. He said it’s harder to play like this than it is fast and a lot! Listen to it all the way through three times. Really listen. The lyrics are seemingly nonsensical but there’s emotion in them. That’s what Turner is going for, conveying the emotion of how something feels rather than explain it to his listeners. But yeah, three times. That’s how long it took me to fell in love with the whole thing. A song here or there doesn’t really do it. You miss out on the vision. To understand the sound on this album you have to hear all of its iterations. Starting with Mirrorball (actually my favorite) then Sculptures, Jet Skis, Big ideas, and then my other favorite Hello You. It’s all over the place and those aren’t even all of the songs but they all have a place in the track list. Guys did a cool thing here. Different. VERY DIFFERENT. Even from where they were with Tranquility Base. But they should be proud of this album. It’s up there in my top 3 AM albums.