Arctic Monkeys: 10 Underrated B-Sides (That Deserved To Be Album Tracks)
7. The Bakery (Fluorescent Adolescent, 2007)
Favourite Worst Nightmare might be home to one of Arctic Monkeys' most gorgeous songs in the form of Only Ones Who Know, but surely they could have found room for this little delight? More in the style of Despair in the Departure Lounge, The Bakery is a melodic introspection into the lost loves we'll never have.
The singer contemplates all ones who got away by virtue of never having actually met him, positing the dark revelation that if there's really such a thing as a soul-mate, we're unlikely to actually meet them.
The song opens with the simple "I wish you would have smiled in the bakery" before listing other near-misses with potential loves of the speaker's life. "I wish I would have seen you in the post office ... Why not the rounders pitch or the canteen?"
The song serves as a bittersweet reminder that we only meet the people we love by chance, while acknowledging that there are thousands of others out there we might have been better off with -- not that we'll ever know for sure. Returning to the bakery in the last verse, Turner acknowledges, "if I'd seen you in the bakery, / You probably would have seen me", suggesting that fate might play a part in keeping us away from people who would turn out to be wrong for us, after all.
The Bakery might have been a bit of a downer for such a vibrant album, but it's a brilliant song which needs more love.