Throwback of the week (27th September)

Four out of Five – Arctic Monkeys

Often under appreciated, ‘Tranquiity Base Hotel and Casino’ has recently been at the centre of attention on social media, with lyrics written by Alex Turner back in 2018 supposedly predicting 2020. The lyric in question, taken from ‘She Looks Like Fun’ is “No one’s on the streets  / We moved it all online / As of March.” It is easy to see why people have drawn this conclusion, and if Alex Turner is anything like his well documented hero David Bowie, I wouldn’t disagree that he has predicted the future.

But I won’t be looking into ‘She Looks Like Fun’ and since this article brought the most recent Arctic Monkeys record back into the limelight, I thought it only right that this weeks throwback look into my favourite track from ‘Tranquility Base’, ‘Four out of Five’.

There are a lot of words which have lost their meaning in recent times and masterpiece is certainly one of them, as it’s bounded about for any old average song it seems, but it’s use when referring to ‘Four out of Five’ is absolutely spot on.

You don’t merely listen to this song, you experience it and for 5 minutes and 12 seconds it is almost an out of body experience. The elegance and subtle nature of the lyrics especially stand out to me. “I’m in no position to give advice, I don’t want to be nice and you know that,” is a personal favourite from the song.

When listening to this album though, you have to throw yourself in head first to the world Alex Turner conjured up in his wonderful mind, and if you can do that there is no reason why this isn’t one of your favourite songs.

From start to finish, the album takes you on a journey and so did this song. I love it and finally, it seems like it is finally being appreciated!

Words by: Dan Smith