MILB: "Do I Wanna Know" by Arctic Monkeys.

I've already done an Arctic Monkeys song previously, but I was recently re-listening to their last album, "AM" and found another great song I wanted to talk about. If you haven't listened to this album, please do.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised to find it has a lot to offer.

The basic idea of this song is that the protagonist is a guy that's still hung up on his ex.  He thinks about her all the time, and she's something he just can't seem to shake.  He's basically talking through all the issues he goes through, and hoping that she misses him the same way.

Now let me tell you something.  Anyone that has ever been broken up with understands this feeling.  Your first love breaks your heart, and you end up sitting around listening to music that makes you think of them, and having dreams about them, and wondering if you could call them and try to make it right.  It's human nature to think that way, for goodness sakes.  It's a warm comfortable feeling, and one that makes you long even more for the people who've left you.

That's exactly what this song's about.  Alex Turner does some amazing lyrics for this song (and actually the whole album) evocative of emo without the whiny parts.  Lyrics like, "Have you got the guts/been wondering if your heart's still open/and if so what time it shuts."  and "Do I wanna know/if this feeling flows both ways/sad to see you go/was sort of hoping that you'd stay/baby we both know/that the nights were mainly made for saying things you can't say tomorrow day" really get across the feeling of want.  You can almost see the man sitting in his apartment, listening to the music on repeat with a drink in his hand until he passes out spilling the drink on the couch.  These are the visuals you get listening to Alex Turner's voice.  He may have lost most of his Yorkshire accent in the recording of the song (except for the random use of summat instead of something in one of the lyrics) but he's definitely got a voice that emotes.

The Arctic Monkeys get a lot of press, especially from NME, about being "The New Rock."  Their previous efforts definitely were more raw, and they've been accused of selling out, and having Josh Homme change their sound (he being the lead singer and main group member of Queens of the Stone Age and a friend of the band).  I don't believe it, but that's what they say.  Still, this song is fantastic, and one that I've really listened to quite a bit.  There are several layers to it that require multiple listenings just to find all of them.  When you get a chance, see if you can listen to it and hopefully you'll like ti.