The Sheffield band’s upcoming sixth album is due for release on May 11 and, with a hefty tour due to follow, lead singer Alex Turner and his bandmates have begun drip feeding more information about the style of the new record. One of Arctic Monkeys’ running trends is to switch up their sound for each new album and Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino will be no different. In fact, it has been revealed that the new record was once set to be released as a solo album for Turner.

After the runaway success of their last studio album AM, Alex Turner and co have explained how turning to the Piano to write music has heavily influenced the upcoming material: “I’ve tricked myself into writing – by sitting at the piano, doing this thing that I haven’t done before,” said Turner in the latest issue of Mojo. “That gave me permission to go somewhere I’d had trouble getting to before. It allowed me to put across how I feel more, more… broadly than before.”

Guitarist Jamie Cook was the one member of the band who let slip that the new record was very nearly a solo album for turner: “I think at first, because it was quite basic – piano, vocal and no guitar – Al was in two minds about, ‘is this Arctic Monkeys or am I going somewhere else with this’,” said Cook. “And maybe at first I was a bit like that as well. It’s not definitely not a guitar-heavy record, not typically what we’d do. It took a lot more thinking about.”