American Sports

Album: Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (2018)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is the third track from Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, a record that is centered around the titular moon-based luxury resort. The album takes a dark turn during this song as Alex Turner takes a look into the dystopian future, where he and his bandmates are a lounge act at the lunar location.

    My virtual reality mask is stuck on 'Parliament Brawl'
    Emergency battery pack, just in time for my weekly chat
    With God on video call


    Turner uses exaggerated dystopian metaphors in order to illustrate contemporary problems such as the collapse of civility and an over reliance on technology.
  • Turner adopts a sinister vocal tone to go with the dark lyrics. He explained to Pitchfork:

    "That vocal was done close to the beginning of recording that track at home. I feel like there's an opportunity to capture something when you're not even sure you've completely written it yet. I tried to replace the vocals later but I couldn't do the thing that we liked about it anymore, so we left it the way it was. It's probably not the most well-recorded thing."
  • This was one of four Tranquility tracks that the Arctic Monkeys debuted when they made their live return in San Diego on May 2, 2018. The others were "Four Out of Five," "She Looks Like Fun" and "One Point Perspective."

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