“I couldn’t get the hang of poetry”: Exploring Alex Turner’s vital use of colloquialisms
On Arctic Monkeys‘ long-forgotten b-side ‘Anyways’, Alex Turner evokes his signature directionless political consciousness with the quip, “How’s your mum and dad been doing with the generation gap?” It’s a deliberately layered, conversationalist remark you might hear in the pub, one deep enough to floor you in the moment, but light enough to be laughed off with a sip of whatever’s in your glass.
To the unsuspecting outsider, Turner’s self-effacing deliberations might appear abstract. Even the quintessential Northern experiences he condensed throughout Whatever People Say I Am held the inexplicable ability of making the mundane feel more dutifully poetic than perhaps even he intended, coming across as wildly whimsical even with experiences as simple as getting a taxi home after a night out.
However, as stereotypically-Turner as it might seem two decades later, this distinctly everyday voice toes the line between feeling personal and accessible, making his poetic inclinations a mere extension of basic observations about life, the people in it, and the politics that define it. In ‘Suck It And See’, Turner seemingly pokes fun at such restrictive labels with the line, “I poured my aching heart into a pop song / I couldn’t get the hang of poetry.”
As offhand as it may seem, such an easy sway towards the kind of lines that might be uttered in everyday conversation by lovelorn people looking for a way to put their feelings and thoughts into words has always been Turner’s mainstay. Less troubled in his own lyrics than many of his peers, Turner’s experiences are the driving force of everything he discusses, his oscillations between seemingly off-kilter musings and casual commentary providing a delicate balance between relatability and artistic insight.
These colloquialisms—as subtle or overbearing as they may seem—aren’t merely efforts of a tryhard musical lyricist on the cusp of a clever tirade, but rather the authentic inspection of someone whose world is defined only by their own thoughts and experiences. In other words, Turner rarely fixates on the thorough details of the themes he hints at, instead allowing hints to pour out naturally, much like how someone might utter a strange, suggestive comment in a social setting that sows the seeds for hours of endless debate about both perspectives.
By doing this, Turner also reframes the purpose of secondhand narration in music, all while adopting a detectable flavour of playfulness that consistently keeps his roots and upbringing as central components. Many of Turner’s words seem like the inner workings of a mind that insists on scrambling through thoughts like mindless scribblings in a diary or rumpled piece of paper, but these flaws ultimately make the music even more enticing, like feeling the urge to hear what he has to say, even if it doesn’t always make sense.
Sometimes, these are so inherently personal, spawning from real conversations Turner has had in his life with friends or members of his family. With ‘American Sports’, for instance, he became inspired after his granddad suggested he write the phrase “the trainer’s explanation was accepted by the steward” into a song. It might seem too disconnected from anything Turner might otherwise sing about, or straight up nonsense to some, but something about it feels inherently profound, connecting beyond the context of sports.
Ultimately, these expansions of everyday linguistic occurrences become building blocks to Turner’s world and how he makes sense of it, even when they’re taken out of their contexts. At the same time, many appear as comments few would ever think to incorporate in an artistic setting, proving his affinity for bringing the seemingly mundane into focus, challenging whether there’s any overlooked meaning to the untouched corners of life.
