[13][20] The two met Andy Nicholson in secondary school,[21] and the three friends bonded over their shared enjoyment of hip-hop artists such as Dr. Dre,[22] the Wu-Tang Clan,[13] Outkast,[13] and Roots Manuva.

[13] They spent their time playing basketball, skateboarding, riding BMXs,[23] and "making crap hip-hop" beats using Turner's father's Cubase system.

[44][45] In the summer of 2003, Turner played seven gigs in York and Liverpool as a rhythm guitarist for the funk band Judan Suki, after meeting the lead singer Jon McClure on a bus.

That summer, the band made the decision to permanently replace Nicholson,[76] who had taken a touring break due to "fatigue",[77] with Nick O'Malley, another childhood friend.

[88][89] While uninterested in the songs concerning fame, Marc Hogan of Pitchfork said the album displayed Turner's "usual gift for vivid imagery" and explored "new emotional depth".

[97] Homme has said the album's heavier sound was initiated by the band themselves, while he encouraged Turner to embrace longer guitar solos[98] and to develop his newfound "crooning" style of singing.

[101] During a break in the UK Humbug tour, Turner joined Richard Hawley on stage at a London charity concert,[102] and played a seven-song acoustic set.

[104] Turner wrote Arctic Monkeys' fourth album, Suck It and See, in New York[105] and met up with his bandmates and James Ford for recording sessions in Los Angeles.

In early 2013, Turner provided backing vocals for the Queens of the Stone Age song "If I Had a Tail"[111] and played bass guitar on "Get Right", a Miles Kane B-side.

[115][116][117] Ryan Dombal of Pitchfork said that the album, dealing with "desperate 3 a.m. thoughts", managed to modernise "T. Rex bop, Bee Gees backup vocals, Rolling Stones R&B, and Black Sabbath monster riffage".

"[126] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian found it "quietly impressive" that the band chose to release the "thrilling, smug, clever and oddly cold album" rather than more crowd-pleasing fare.

[150][151] Also in 2008, Turner formed a covers band with Dev Hynes for a one-off show in London[152] and recorded a spoken word track "A Choice of Three" for Helders' compilation album Late Night Tales.

[163] While living in Brooklyn, New York, where he had moved in the spring of 2009,[164] Turner wrote an acoustic soundtrack for the coming-of-age feature film Submarine (2010);[165] it was released as an EP in March 2011.

[166] Director Richard Ayoade initially approached Turner to sing cover versions[167] but, instead, he recorded six original songs in London, accompanied by James Ford and Bill Ryder-Jones.

[175] Columbia Records approached Turner about working with Alexandra Savior in 2014, and he co-wrote her debut album, Belladonna of Sadness, in between Arctic Monkeys' touring commitments.

'"[178] In 2022, Turner composed the music for the audiobook version of Richard Ayoade's The Book That No One Wanted to Read with the instrumental interludes being performed himself and James Ford.

[196] In his late teens, Turner began "delving" into older music and discovered lyricists including Elvis Costello,[8] Ray Davies of The Kinks,[8][13] Jarvis Cocker of Pulp,[197] Paul Weller of The Jam,[198] and Morrissey of The Smiths.

Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino was inspired by films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), World on a Wire (1973), Le Cercle Rouge (1970), Spirits of the Dead (1968), Inherent Vice (2014) and The Last Waltz (1978).

"[230] Turner has also cited Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe series[231] and works by authors David Foster Wallace and George Saunders as inspirations for The Car.

[232][233] Kate Mossman of the New Statesman described Turner as "one of the great lyricists of the 21st century", writing that his songs are "full of lovingly extended metaphors" and "mordant Morrissey-style observations".

[234] Mike Laws of the Village Voice characterised him as "a writer without peer in virtually all of rock" and identified "rapid-fire prosody and facility with internal rhyme" as Turner's trademarks.

"[236] "Like all the estimable British lyricists, be it Noël Coward or Morrissey, Turner has always been willing to risk a delicious irony or witty turn of phrase, even in a sad song.

[249] Monroe of The Independent highlights "anti-industry sloganeering", "lyrical abstraction", "postmodern scepticism", and a "rejection of the entire rock construct" as the "through-line in Turner's work".

[20][265] In 2007, Kitty Empire of The Observer noted that he was a "reserved" presence on stage: "He chats a bit to about 15 people in the middle of the front rows, and only looks up at the balcony, once, a little apprehensively.

[268] Brian Hiatt of Rolling Stone noted of his "newfound showmanship" that he "puts his guitar down to strut and dance, drops to his knees for solos when he does play, [and] flirts shamelessly with the female fans".

[11] In reviewing a 2013 concert, Dorian Lynskey of The Guardian said, "Turner, a shy sort for a frontman, used to seem unnerved by attention and he's coped by adopting a tongue-in-cheek persona that suggests a comic-strip version of a 50s rock star, a Blackpool Buddy Holly: all quiff and quips.

"[269][270] Ben Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian noted in 2018 that Turner ironically "played with the role" of being a rockstar but simultaneously "can't help but be a real rock star".

[271] While reviewing a 2023 concert, Sian Cain of The Guardian said, "There are few frontmen touring today who lean into the theatrics of rockstardom as effortlessly as Alex Turner", and felt there were similarities to the performance styles of Bob Dylan and David Byrne, adding, "He's fond of a campy turn and stare".

"[277] In a 2022 interview with The Guardian, referencing his 2014 BRIT Awards speech, Turner acknowledged for the first time the use of personas, separating himself from what he described as, the "performer" – a fractured reflection of himself– of each album.

[264] He is an avid reader and has cited authors Joseph Conrad, Ernest Hemingway, Vladimir Nabokov,[285] David Foster Wallace, and George Saunders[231][232][233] as some of his favourites.