‘If You Were There, Beware’ was always a highlight of mine from Favourite Worst Nightmare. Bought that album from Woolworth’s in about the first or second week it was released in April 2007. It was a big deal. A year and a bit had just passed and the biggest UK band of 2006 had come back with their second record. I think it’s always been my favourite album by the group. It was a bit like their first album but very beefy in its production. And the songs are good too.

Anyway, ‘This House Is a Circus’ seamlessly transitions into ‘If You Were There’ – one of the best moments on Nightmare – and the latter begins with an unforgettable riff that drew 12 year old me to it immediately. All the other instruments join in for the emphatic introduction which eventually give way to Alex Turner’s vocals for the first verse. All this time I’ve never put any thought into what the song was about; the vocal melody is so infectious that it just never came to mind. Though reading up on the lyrics (and just seeing fan interpretations) it’s somewhat agreed that it’s about the British tabloid press and the vulture-like manner in which they gather information from celebrities or the people they’re involved with.

Looking back on Arctic Monkeys’ discography now, it’s not so surprising that the band followed this up with Humbug a couple years later. I have a vague memory of people being slightly put off by the change in sound they undertook. Though evidence of what was to come was in this song all along. Matt Helders carries the track with some fantastic drum work, really leading the track’s rhythm when the song slows down just over a minute in. And overall the song’s direction changes so many times it’s as if there are four songs in one. It’s a mammoth of a song and maybe, just maybe, one of their most ambitious at that point.