Music was one of my favourite pastimes as a kid in high school and it still is now. Listening to music provided an escape from the monotony of the classroom and the dreariness that comes with studying. Listening to artists like Green Day, Linkin Park, The Script, The Strokes greatly influenced me, but none more so than those four boys from Sheffield, the Arctic Monkeys.
Alex, Matt, Jamie and Nick, collectively known as the Arctic Monkeys are a four piece indie rock band from Sheffield, England. My first encounter with the Monkeys came in the form of a magazine back in the year 2009. I was in the 8th standard and had just discovered indie music. After reading about the boys in the magazine i went on to listen to their music. Their third full length album, Humbug had just released that year. Sporting leather jackets and shoulder length hair, the boys sang about propellers, secret doors and dangerous animals in the album. It was love at first listen. Their songs, the lyrics, were really relatable and applicable for me in my life. I can imagine every life changing moment in my life being accompanied by and Arctic Monkeys song, whether it be joy, sadness, heartbreak or grief. Almost like soundtracks, if my life had been a movie. If only.
Alex Turner's lyricism is on another level. He is a wordsmith of Morrissey standards. His words are savagely life affirming. Take for example, one of my favourite lines from one of their songs SUCK IT AND SEE. In the song Turner sings “You’re rarer than a can of Dandelion& Burdock and those other girls are just post-mix lemonade.” Dandelion & Burdock is a British drink extremely difficult to find in shops; consequently, Turner is contrasting the rareness of this beverage to lemonade, which is more common and of lesser quality in comparison. By translating this idea into people, it is meant that the girl in question is more unique and special than the other girls.
When I first listened to this song, I thought my life had peaked. No force on Earth could stop me from believing that this was it. In fact this song was what prompted me to pick up and start learning the guitar. This was the only song i could play on the guitar for a while but being able to play an Arctic Monkeys song meant a lot to me. I sang it whenever i got the chance on the guitar and i think it rubbed off on some of my friends, who also started listening to the Monkeys after constantly hearing me play the song.
Music, they say, is a religion and I couldn't agree more. But if that is so then the Arctic Monkeys (Alex, Matt, Jamie and Nick) are gods because to me their sound is immaculate, otherworldly, almost divine. What they have done for a mere mortal like me is incalculable and I can only thank them in worship.
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