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Fluorescent Adolescent

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"Fluorescent Adolescent"
Song
B-side"The Bakery"
"Plastic Tramp"
"Too Much to Ask"

"Fluorescent Adolescent" is a song by the English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys, released as the second single from their second album Favourite Worst Nightmare.[3] It was released on 4 July 2007 in Japan and 9 July 2007 in the United Kingdom.

The song was written by Alex Turner and Johanna Bennett, Turner's girlfriend at the time, in a hotel room prior to the recording of Favourite Worst Nightmare. The song is a ballad about getting older and finding out that life isn't as fun anymore. It describes a woman who dreams of her youth while her current life is unsatisfying and boring, with emphasis on her sex life- this is reflected in the opening line, "You used to get it in your fishnets, now you only get it in your nightdress, discarded all the naughty nights for niceness, landed in a very common crisis". "Fluorescent Adolescent" is one of the band's most popular songs, and is frequently performed as a closer to their concerts.

Music video

Filmed in late April 2007, the music video was directed by Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd/Nathan Barley) and features Stephen Graham (who previously appeared on the Scummy Man DVD and the "When the Sun Goes Down" video) as a clown.[4][5][6] The music video premiered in the UK at 23:40, 5 June 2007 on Channel 4, and was available online the next day.[7]

The music video is based around a fight between a group of clowns and a group of non-clowns at an abandoned warehouse. The presumed leaders of the two groups have a flashback showing that they were friends when they were young children. During the flashback, photos of the band as young children are shown. Throughout the fight, each group leader attempts to kill the other. As the music video climaxes, the non-clown leader tries to run over the clown leader. However the clown leader notices that the non-clown leader's car (with the non-clown leader inside) has been leaking fuel and drops his cigarette lighter. The car quickly catches fire and the clown leader looks on as his former friend burns and the music video ends.

The video is loosely inspired by the poem "Out of Control Circus" by John Cooper Clarke. Turner says he's a fan and gets lyrical inspiration from Clarke. The poem is also printed inside the CD release of "Fluorescent Adolescent." The lines such as "out of control fairground" and "homicidal clowns" support this.

The video was preceded by a warning of violent images.[8] In an MTV interview, Turner stated that the music video "is the best thing we've ever done" while Jamie Cook hailed it as "...probably one of the best videos in the last, like, 10 years".[9]

During a live performance of the song on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, the band played the song dressed as clowns, with Alex Turner dressing with the same make up and clothing as the main clown in the video.

Critical reception

The song has received a 9/10 rating from Planet Sound, becoming Arctic Monkeys' first single to do so since "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor".[10]

Track listing

Chart performance

Charts (2007)[11] Peak
position
Danish Singles Chart 9
French Singles Chart 88
Irish Singles Chart 12
Poland (LP3)[12] 4
UK Indie Chart 1
UK Singles Chart 5

On downloads alone, "Fluorescent Adolescent" charted in the UK Singles Chart at #55 for the week commencing 25 June 2007. The song charted at number five upon release of the single on CD for the week commencing 16 July 2007. Since 27 June 2007, "Fluorescent Adolescent" has received significant BBC Radio 1 airplay as the first song on "The A List" Playlist.[13] The songs three B-sides—"Plastic Tramp", "The Bakery" and "Too Much to Ask"—appeared on the UK Singles Chart the week of the single's physical release at #153, #161 and #178, respectively.

Covers

Kate Nash performed a cover of the song on 5 October 2007.[14]

References

  1. ^ "BBC - Seven Ages of Rock "What the World Is Waiting For"". Seven Ages of Rock. 2007. Retrieved 2 March 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ "Arctic Monkeys - Intelligent indie-rock from Sheffield". Clash. Retrieved 11 March 2011. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ XFM
  4. ^ Domino Records
  5. ^ Arctic-Monkeys
  6. ^ MTV
  7. ^ Arctic-Monkeys
  8. ^ Arctic-Monkeys
  9. ^ MTV
  10. ^ Planet Sound[dead link]
  11. ^ http://acharts.us/song/12452
  12. ^ "Lista Przebojów Trójki". Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  13. ^ BBC Radio 1
  14. ^ casablancasro (2007). "kate nash - fluorescent adolescent". YouTube. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
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