Arctic Monkeys - Their 15 Best Lyrics

3. "The knife twists that I should fall short of the mark, frightened by the bite but it's no harsher than the bark" Song: 505 Album: Favourite Worst Nightmare 505 is seen by many as the turning point for Alex Turner when he went from being a good lyricist to a fantastic one, and this seems a reasonable statement to make. The song details the aftermath of a messy fight with a girlfriend and Alex's desperation to sort out everything that went wrong in order to return to a point in the relationship when everything was going well (which 505 serves as a metaphor for). The line quoted deals with Turner's immense sense of dread as he thinks about the idea of discussing with his girlfriend about how to sort it out, caused by fear of only making things worse. Despite the fact he knows that in reality they can't get that much worse, but to accept that would mean accepting that it's most likely over and he can't bring himself to do that just yet. The play on the cliche of someone's bark being worse than their bite is used to great effect here, as this shows that by over thinking he is in fact making matters worse for himself, imagining every possible outcome rather than just facing his fear and confronting her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQBe_pibFCo 2. "He's got the feeling again, this time on the airplane, there may be tellys in the back of the seat in front, but Rodney and Del won't do, although it might take your mind off the aches and the pains, laugh when he falls through the bar but you're feeling the same" Song: Despair in the departure lounge Album: Who The F**k Are Arctic Monkeys? (EP) A slightly longer quote than usual this but it's justified, taken from the band's second EP it is a melancholic tale of a man over thinking his shortcomings in life whilst in an airport/travelling by plane. A fairly simple concept overall, and one that would be pretty boring if Turner didn't add his signature touch to the proceedings. In the section quoted above there is included a reference to one of the most loved scenes from the very famous sitcom "Only Fools and Horses" making the story feel more realistic due to it's inclusion of real world pop culture and then hidden behind that, is a cutting self analysis of Turner as he writes about how not even the show can save him from his slump, and that whilst he may laugh along to it it's merely laughter to keep up appearances. This creates an idea of a very depressive character without explicitly stating so, hiding his frame of mind behind coincidental details, such as the protagonist is attempting to do by laughing at the show, so that his unhappiness does not become common knowledge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYC_KVaD5TU