Recording information: Air Studios, London, England; One Inch Studios, London, England.
Alex Turner's soundtrack to Submarine, the first film by director Richard Ayoade, finds the Arctic Monkeys frontman exploring yet another avenue that's quite different from his regular gig. With the Last Shadow Puppets, Turner had the chance to explore Baroque `60s pop, and here he gets intimate, often just strumming his guitar and singing on his own, and when the horizons do open up on "Stuck on the Puzzle" and "Piledriver Waltz," the proceedings are on a smaller scale, containing none of the word-twisting frenzy of the Monkeys at their peak. Turner walks a fine line of providing hushed mood music for a film, and delving into someplace deeper; his tunes aren't mere background music, yet there's a casualness to his Submarine songs that keeps them from truly resonating. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
