Arctic Monkeys’ best break-up song, according to Richard Ayoade
Arctic Monkeys have spent their entire career walking a set of tightropes. Some lines they’ve managed to hold steady, like the balance between bleeding-heart sincerity and irony-laced deadpan. Others, like the early tug-of-war between romantic fantasias and down-to-earth relatability, they’ve drifted from. These days, they write concept albums about hotels on the moon. It’s a long way from the days of telling stories about bouncers outside Gatecrasher One on a Saturday night in Sheffield.
Perhaps that push-and-pull between silliness and severity is what attracted the attention of fan and frequent collaborator Richard Ayoade. One of the most recognised figures in modern British comedy, Ayoade is most known for his starring role in The IT Crowd as the put-upon, socially awkward IT technician Maurice Moss. However, he really shines in his supporting roles in The Mighty Boosh and Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.
You see, Ayoade is at his best when he is a straight man trapped in a ludicrous fantasy universe. His role in The Boosh is a perfect example of this, as he plays a put-upon, jobsworth little nerd driven to distraction by the silliness that surrounds him. The fact that he’s a magical shaman called Saboo just adds to the surreal joy. While Ayoade has worked with countless bands, from Vampire Weekend to Radiohead and everywhere in between, Arctic Monkeys just feel like the best fit for that reason.
Together, they are also uniquely prepared to bring out the most emotional sides in each other. This is still best exemplified by Ayoade’s film Submarine, a 2010 romantic comedy-drama where Ayoade tapped up Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner to write songs for the soundtrack. The lovelorn, yet subtly quirky, acoustic ballads Turner came up with didn’t just suit the film down to a tee, but would become the reference point for the next decade and a half of Turner’s songwriting with the Arctic Monkeys.
Which song made Ayoade believe they were right for the job?
So, where did the inspiration for this come from? By the time Ayoade chose Turner to make the soundtrack, the Monkeys had made two albums, and Turner himself had teamed up with Miles Kane to form The Last Shadow Puppets, their debut album coming out in 2008. One would assume that the sign that Turner could make an acoustic record of ballads came from The Puppets, but in an interview with BBC Sounds, Ayoade picks a different song.
You see, the Monkeys’ second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, is many things. Most obvious is that at points, it’s a blisteringly heavy album. Most notably on the lead single ‘Brianstorm’. However, dig a little deeper and you’ll find it’s a break-up album at heart. The devastating likes of ‘Only Ones Who Know’ and ‘505’ are some of the high points of the album.
Of the album as a whole, he says, “There’s a sort of melancholy and a sense of wide scope to the second album, which I think almost everything they’ve done has developed wrong.” He also picks a song that contains the best of both those worlds: one that has the visceral, noisy thrills of the album’s heavy moments with a dark, yearning heart at the centre.
He singles out ‘Do Me A Favour’ as one of his favourite songs by the band, saying, “There’s a particularly moving quality to that song. I think it’s a great, soulful break-up song.” Again, fitting for an actor and director who is so adept at striking a balance between silliness and seriousness, Ayoade picks out a song that strikes a balance between devastatingly heavy and heavily devastating.
