The string flourish that opens this album recalls The Shining’s maddening score, but instead of a fellating bear or a river of blood, Alex Turner and Miles Kane are shaken by a much more terrifying force: womankind. Turner, lead singer for Arctic Monkeys, is known for his sly skewering of suburban U.K. poseurs, dirtbags and pimps. Here, he and his buddy Kane take turns describing a bevy of diabolical females who take pleasure sticking their heels into unwitting lads’ hearts. The duo fight back with song after song full of cutting takedowns and brotherly wisdom—they get petty, they get mean, but aided by Arcade Fire orchestrator Owen Pallett, they turn their bitchfests into grandiose melodrama. “My Mistakes Were Made for You” slinks like a lost Bond theme as they dissect a starlet’s twisted psychology; big-band horns rouse behind Turner’s croon on the strident kiss-off “Calm Like You.” When they make Bros Before Ho’s: The Musical, this will be its Tony-winning soundtrack.

Download “The Time Has Come Again,” “Calm Like You,” “The Age of the Understatement”