Alex Turner broke out with Arctic Monkeys in the mid-2000s and has consistently reaffirmed himself as one of the most fascinating frontmen working as a part of contemporary rock music.
A lyricist that has continued to broaden his musical horizons with every release, Turner has metamorphosed from being the shy teenager watching Sheffield’s every move into one of the last true rockstars, crafting a distinctive blend of experimental pop, glam rock and trip-hop, with more recent comparisons made with the likes of David Bowie and Scott Walker.
Blending surrealism with a forensic grasp of the day-to-day, toeing this line between reality and fiction has been key to Turner’s success in both his musical exploits and his broader rise as a titan of popular culture. In interviews, he’s prone to giving compelling and confounding answers, with a clear sense that he likes to keep his fans guessing, as this has its obvious benefits.
One of the most interesting aspects of Turner, however, is how he approaches his work. The musician has been known to be cutting about his past efforts, but he’s also prone to have described them in some surprising ways that leave us all scratching our heads. This was brought into focus when he spoke to Vulture in 2018 and described one of his albums as “the odd one out” of the collection.
Demonstrating the type of character Alex Turner is, he described 2011’s Suck It and See, the album that produced songs such as ‘Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair’ and ‘Black Treacle’ as “the odd one out” not because of it’s musical qualities, but because of where it was written. As part of the broader piece, he made it clear that location matters when he writes.
“I wrote most of the new album in my house in L.A. in a room where I don’t think anyone can hear me,” Turner said. “I’ve never written a song in the van on the way to someplace. I’ve never written much on the road, and anything I’ve written near a body of water has always been bad as well. Also, I couldn’t tell you how, but when I lived in New York, I think the grid system made me write differently. I had never written above the first floor, and then I wrote [2011’s] Suck It and See in a fifth-floor apartment, and that’s the odd one out among our albums.”
