Every Arctic Monkeys Single Ranked Worst To Best

17. Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?

An absolutely enormous Arctic Monkeys track, both from its sound and the fact that audiences absolutely adore it.

Perhaps Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High? Is R U Mine? lite, but it’s also insanely catchy and simplistic in a great way. Drummer Matt Helders lays down a heavy, simple drum beat which is backed up by Nick O’Malley’s bass, and the song becomes a head bopping, toe tapping classic. Incredibly, Arctic Monkeys do all of this simplicity without becoming boring.

The theme of the song is explained in the title; it’s a sex soaked ode to drunk texting and a relationship that only blooms when it’s 3am and you’re lonely. The song’s music video is equally as sleazy as we follow frontman Alex Turner on a drunken late night walk through East London in pursuit of a woman, however also followed by hallucinations. He’s slick and craving action and this song is the embodiment of that.

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