Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is a major departure from the band's previous guitar-heavy work, being considered less accessible than its internationally successful predecessor, AM (2013).

Its lyrical content draws heavily from science fiction and film, exploring consumerism, politics, religion and technology through the concept of a luxury resort on the Moon told from the perspective of various characters, such as the singer in the in-house band on "Star Treatment" or the hotel's receptionist called 'Mark', whose name is directly referred to in "Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino" (the title track) and many other times throughout the albums lyrics and visuals.

Despite its stylistic deviation polarising listeners, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino was released to generally positive reviews and was named the best album of 2018 by Q magazine.

In early 2016, upon watching Federico Fellini's 1963 film 8½, Turner was inspired by its depiction of writer's block, childhood memories and the science fiction genre.

He began writing songs for the album on a Steinway Vertegrand piano he received as a 30th birthday gift from the Arctic Monkeys' manager Ian McAndrew.

Zach Dawes and Tyler Parkford of Mini Mansions, and Evan Weiss of Wires on Fire also performed on "American Sports" and "The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip".

[4] The album has been compared to the works of David Bowie,[24][15][19] Serge Gainsbourg,[20][15][22] Leonard Cohen,[15][19] Nick Cave,[25] Jarvis Cocker,[19][22][18] Richard Hawley[18] and Father John Misty,[24][20][19][22] as well as Pet Sounds (1966) by the Beach Boys.

[7] The album's drum and bass lines have been compared closely to those on Histoire de Melody Nelson, with the influence of Pet Sounds pervading the record, especially in its vocal harmonies.

[27] Turner's lyrical voice has been described as "absurdist suave", as opposed to the "witty sleaze" of his previous work, and has been compared to Argentine short-story writer Jorge Luis Borges.

[26] Furthermore, the ideas present within the books Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985) by Neil Postman and Infinite Jest (1996) by David Foster Wallace inspired Turner's philosophical exploration of the human condition in contemporary society.

[5] "Star Treatment", the album's opening track, begins with a reference to American indie rock band the Strokes' early influence on Turner.

[32] Turner has noted that the track's jazz elements were influenced by his father, commenting that "the sort of jazzy bit of that, that every time it comes around, when I sit there, it feels like something he would play".

[32]The album's titular track mocks contemporary society's sterility, as well as containing political references, on which Turner has commented that "more of those ideas have certainly found a way into this record than anything I’ve done before".

[32] It has been suggested that the lyrics "the leader of the free world reminds you of a wrestler wearing tight golden trunks" is in reference to the then president of the United States Donald Trump.

[18] It has been labelled as the album's only "singalong anthem", and describes an acclaimed taqueria on the moon named the "Information-Action Ratio", in reference to Neil Postman's concept, exploring gentrification.

[31] On "The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip", Turner vocally alternates from a "Bowie-style drawl to the falsetto and to a gruff murmur",[28] with its minimal percussion and bass guitar and use of reverb being compared to Pet Sounds.

[27] It features a "gorgeous" acoustic and baritone guitar solos performed by Tom Rowley, and descending piano chords that "symbol a kind of final bow".

Turner was inspired by the conspiracy theory that Stanley Kubrick faked the first Moon landing, initially naming the spare room in which he wrote and recorded the project's demos "Lunar Surface".

He stated that naming the room was "instrumental" in the conception of the title, alongside a series of Apollo-branded cups owned by Turner which depict an eagle with the caption "Tranquility Base".

[37][38] The group announced promotional pop-up shops on the weekend of the album's release, in their native Sheffield, New York, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, and Sydney.

[42] Two days after the album's release, "Four Out of Five" was issued as its lead single, alongside an accompanying music video directed by Ben Chappell and Aaron Brown.

[43][44] The video was compared to the works of Stanley Kubrick, depicting Turner walking through an elegant home reminiscent of The Shining and an underground train station evocative of the dystopia of A Clockwork Orange.

[46] In July, the group released a music video for the album's titular track, "Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino", again directed by Brown and Chappell.

The stylised video is inspired by Kubrick, featuring the surreal science fiction style established in "Four Out of Five", and depicts Turner exploring a hotel.

suggested against dismissing the album without multiple listens, writing that it "feels like poetic social and fantasy-world commentary penned by Turner, who then fancied having a go at the piano and then brought the whole band in for good measure.

[28] Spin's Larry Fitzmaurice similarly noted the album as the group's "strangest and most alluring", writing that a "sense of heading into the unknown – of charting new and strange artistic territory, accessibility be damned – pervades Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino as a whole, its own adventurousness proving a successful gambit".

[21] Kitty Empire of sister publication The Observer was more positive, writing that despite a chance that the album might be poorly-received, the "voyage into themed purgatory ... is worth it".

[18] AllMusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised the album, writing that "the expansive aural horizons of Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino suggest there are plenty of avenues for Turner to steer Arctic Monkeys into a fruitful middle age".

Club noted that its lack of "obvious hooks" was its key flaw, with its structureless nature resulting in the album feeling "unmoored and even plodding".

It additionally reached number two in Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark and Norway, and the top ten in Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Finland, Sweden, Japan and Poland.