In no way, shape, or form are the Arctic Monkeys a niche band, but I think they lost most of their popularity post their album “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino”. So, with their most recent album, “The Car”, it was unassuming to most, but it was incredibly serious to me. I don’t think I can begin to explain my love for the Arctic Monkeys.
It was 7 am, and I was on the way to school by bus. The ride would approximately take 20 minutes since there was barely any traffic in the morning, and the album itself was 37 minutes long. I wouldn’t be able to listen to the entire album, so my solution was to pick out 5 songs that “called to me” and I’d listen to the rest on the way back from school.Â
I wouldn’t describe myself as someone who gatekeeps music, but when this song played for the first time, my first thought was “I never want this song to go viral,” and to this day, I think it’s still one of the least played songs from that album, at least, according to Spotify stats. It was the first song I had picked, and then I continued to play it for the rest of the bus ride.
But, I think there’s something particular about favourites, you can only eat the same thing, or rewatch that one movie a specific number of times. After that, it’s not like you get sick of it, but it’s just not that special anymore. You don’t get that same feeling in your chest, that warm, almost sickly feeling where you’re smiling but you don’t exactly know why. It’s still good, but you can’t feel it.I decided then and there that this is the kind of thing where if I listened to it too much, it would turn mediocre, like a song that just played, one that I would think nothing of. But there was something about the song. Something about how slow it was, something about the strings and the drums, how it felt final. Like the end of a feel-good movie, or that swell of pride you feel after accomplishing something you thought you couldn’t. It was like the name suggested, it just made “Perfect Sense”. It felt like a love song, not one about a love story but one about companionship, and that just felt different.
Maybe it’s delusion or maybe it’s just luck of the draw, but that has only played when the time is right. It’s only played on the auto ride home after a really good day, or on the plane to see my favourite cousins. I wish I could pinpoint specific emotions and feelings as to what favorite songs are to people, and what this song does to me, but more often than not, I think it’s nicer to have your questions go unanswered and to live in ignorance. Knowing why makes it lose all its charm.