The Arctic Monkeys have revealed that their third album is likely to see light of day before this year’s Reading and Leeds Festivals.
Speaking to our old pals at Drownedinsound, drummer Matt Helders revealed that the as-yet-untitled record is recorded and "We’re about halfway through mixing it at the moment. I’m not sure about a release date, it’ll probably be sometime in August before Leeds and Reading."
Helders also said that working with Josh Homme has been a real pleasure. "We were all massive [Queens Of The Stone Age] fans before we were even a band, and to work with someone like that is just amazing. He’s produced a lot of their stuff, and nothing’s a chore for him – like if you do a song four times and then want to change a drum, he’ll do it. He sees how important things like that are, and he knows about good sounds, too."
Despite Homme’s fearsome reputation, the Arctic Monkeys drummer said that "He’s a really nice guy, really funny as well". On the Arctic Monkey’s much-mooted new heavy direction, Helders backpeddled, saying "there’s some quite melodic things as well. It’s not, like a ‘heavy’ album, though there are elements of that." Not more Formby! "I don’t want to give anything away because we haven’t decided on the tracklisting yet, but the songs we’ve been playing live recently, like ‘Crying Lightning’ and ‘Dangerous Animals’, I reckon they’ll all make it on there."
