An Arctic Monkeys Pop-up Store Is Opening In Sydney

Arctic Monkeys have announced that a pop-up store in honour of their latest album, The Car, will open in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills this Friday and Saturday.

Ahead of their sold-out gig at The Domain on Saturday night, the I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor group are offering unique, limited-edition merchandise items alongside their seventh album in multiple formats. Situated at the Golden Age Cinema & Bar, fans can sit and watch The Car promotional videos between movie screenings. 

The pop-up store's opening hours are Friday 13 and Saturday 14 January, from 11 am to 6 pm. 

Drummer Matt Helders stated that The Car does follow in the footsteps of Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino, "it’s never gonna be like R U Mine? and all that stuff again, you know, the heavy riffs and stuff. But there are riffs in there and [it’s] a bit more up-tempo, even though it’s not loud," in an interview with The Big Issue.

The new album kept long-time producer James Ford, but the band decided to experiment with the recording process, drawing inspiration from old-school rockers. “There’s a bunch of Led Zeppelin and Stones records where they were in this house in the country, and then they went and sorted it all out and overdubbed it elsewhere,” Alex Turner, lead singer/guitarist revealed. 

So that is precisely what Turner and the band did, hiring out Butley Priory, a converted monastery in rural Suffolk, in the summer of 2021 to lay down the album's roots before going back to London to clean it up. 

"The beloved UK group Arctic Monkeys enjoyed a massive year in 2022, furnishing a critically-acclaimed comeback in The Car. But, after opening with The Car's lead single, There'd Better Be A Mirrorball, the Sheffielders' capacity show at Falls was predominantly a 'greatest hits'" Cyclone Wehner wrote in The Music's Falls Festival Melbourne wrap-up. 

"The quartet stomped through rock anthems like 2013's Snap Out Of It and their breakthrough I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor, the audience elevating the choruses. Alex Turner didn't chat, but his rock posing was on form. The Monkeys halted for the NYE countdown at midnight, and more fireworks, returning to pull off a defacto encore. The band finished abruptly with another track from The Car in Body Paint, leaving the crowd to drift off to UK housers (and fellow Northerners) CamelPhat on the Sugarloaf stage. Still, it was all very arch and theatrical and left everyone craving more – always a feat."

Arctic Monkeys are playing a sold-out show at the Riverstage in Brisbane tomorrow night before ending their Australian tour at The Domain on Saturday.