Released: 2007
Cause and effect. Evolution, not revolution. If you want to understand how the Arctic Monkeys of looking good on the dancefloor, riot vans and calling out pimps eventually became the Arctic Monkeys that made concept albums about space hotels, then 505 is the place to start.
The closing track of their second album Favourite Worst Nightmare was notable because in creeeping up on everyone, on it Alex Turner’s vision had flipped from reality, from saying what he saw, to fantasy, the quartet nosing deftly between curtains like big top illusionists.
This place was new. Where there’d once been no romance around, here was Turner’s first love song, the unrepentant theft of Ennio Morricone’s gear it’s only backwards glance to the world of speed dating, speed bumps and wizz. Now rather than instant gratification the contours were build up and release, I-like-you-like, wanting it to happen, the waiting making it better, different, more sensual.
Maybe it was in this hotel room that the Arctic Monkeys which would go on to kneel at the altar of Scott Walker and Leon Russell were born, or maybe 505 is just a song about separation and desire. Whatever the truth is you can stick a pin in it, because even a trip with no ultimate destination begins somewhere.
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The Voice Of Unreason 
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