Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys at Reading festival in August. Photograph: Simone Joyner/Getty ImagesAs the Sheffield band gear up to release The Car, their seventh album, we trace the road paved with rock, R&B and romance that got them here
by Alexis Petridis20. Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts (2005)Arctic Monkeys skilfully navigated the path from observers of everyday life to success on a scale that means you no longer have an everyday life to observe. Read More...
The ObserverPop and rockInterviewGood time girl: memories of super groupie Pamela Des BarresCraig McLeanPamela Des Barres had the giants of rock’n’roll in the palm of her hand, as her candid memoir reveals
Barely 30 seconds in and Pamela Des Barres has not so much name-dropped as chucked her diary on the table. I compliment the author of I’m With the Band – one of the all-time classic rock’n’roll memoirs – on her ornate necklace, and she says it used to belong to Psycho actor Janet Leigh. Read More...
Work & careersMonitoring software has become more common since the pandemic – but are activity scores the best way to measure productivity?
Every 10 minutes, Mae’s computer snaps a shot of her screen, thanks to monitoring software her employer made her install on her laptop. A figure looms large over her workday: her activity score, a percentage calculated by the arbitrary measure of how much she types and moves her mouse. Read More...