'The album of the year': Fans react to Arctic Monkeys' new album The Car

For the past two decades, the band have slowly progressed from indie rock to easy-listening funk, and The Car, their seventh studio album released on Friday (October 21), completes the shift from their grungy roots.

In its first week, the Arctic Monkeys’ debut album outsold the entire rest of the 2006 top 20 album chart combined. Since then, the band have seen success after success, even as their style has evolved over the years.

As David Smyth writes for the Standard, “It doesn’t sound like the Arctic Monkeys of a decade ago, but so what? We’ll always have AM, and now we have something else that’s extraordinary in a whole new way.”

After such a long break, fans have been (understandably) fervently awaiting the release, and Arctic Monkeys was trending on Twitter on Friday morning.

So far, Twitter reactions have mainly been positive, with excited fans celebrating the razor-sharp riffs and Alex Turner’s ever-evolving vocals.

One Twitter user, who at first teased a negative review, even heralded the new release as the album of the year:

Fans also picked up on music critics heralding the album as a new era for the Monkeys, and welcomed it with open arms.

There was also much flurry on social media about the fact that Taylor Swift had also released her long-awaited album, Midnights, on the same day as The Car.

Swifties and Arctic Monkeys fans were in meltdown trying to listen to both at the same time.