Every Arctic Monkeys Single Ranked Worst To Best

The opening track from the Arctic Monkeys legendary debut record, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, The View from the Afternoon is one hell of a statement of intent. Brash and in your face, the band began their career by letting you know they were a storm.

The View from the Afternoon was the last song that the band wrote for the album. Similarly to the way that A Certain Romance closes Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not with its anthemic ode to working class high school antics, The View from the Afternoon is all about self awareness in the mistakes you’re going to make. The song anticipates a night out and all of the dumb things you’ll do before the sun comes up.

Like many Arctic Monkeys songs, The View from the Afternoon is an air drummers dream of a track, so much so that its music video features a young teen in a parka drumming throughout the night. The music video is an allegory for Buddhism, with the drummer representing Buddha meditating and the various cast of characters around him attempting to distract the man from reaching his goal.