A Certain Romance

Arctic Monkeys was formed in 2002, and began recording music in 2003.{{Cite news |last=McLean |first=Craig |date=2006-01-01 |title=They came, they thawed, they conquered |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/jan/01/popandrock.arcticmonkeys |access-date=2024-02-05 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}{{Cite web |title=Arctic Monkeys' Career So Far: From Rubble to the Ritz {{!}} Exclaim! |url=https://exclaim.ca/music/article/arctic_monkeys_career_retrospective_from_rubble_to_the_ritz |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Arctic Monkeys' Career So Far: From Rubble to the Ritz {{!}} Exclaim! |language=en}} A series of eighteen demos collectively known as Beneath the Boardwalk were burned onto CDs and given out by the band in 2004, later earning traction through the Internet.{{Cite web |date=2007-12-21 |title=Arctic Monkeys: Aren't fooling around (Part 1 of 2) |url=http://www.prefixmag.com/features/arctic-monkeys/arent-fooling-around-part-1-of-2/12565/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071221180601/http://www.prefixmag.com/features/arctic-monkeys/arent-fooling-around-part-1-of-2/12565/ |archive-date=2007-12-21 }}{{Cite web |last=Wilde |first=Jamie |date=2021-01-23 |title=Spotlight Special: Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not |url=https://www.clashmusic.com/features/spotlight-special-arctic-monkeys-whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-im-not/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews |language=en-GB}} Among these tracks is the earliest recorded version of "A Certain Romance".{{Cite web |date=2024-01-17 |title=What is Arctic Monkeys' song 'A Certain Romance' about? |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/story-behind-arctic-monkeys-song-a-certain-romance/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Arctic Monkeys' debut album tracks ranked from worst to best |url=https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/arctic-monkeys/debut-album-tracks-ranked-from-worst-best/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Radio X |language=en}} It was re-recorded for their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not at The Chapel in South Thoresby in 2005.{{Cite web |title="Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" - John Kennedy's Track by Track Podcast - Podcast |url=https://www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/episodes/7Drgb4n/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Global Player |language=en}} Though it was re-recorded, critics and fans have noted similarities between the 2004 demo and the final studio version.

In an interview with NME, frontman and lead singer Alex Turner said that when the song was first recorded, "we were all like, "Woah, woah, woah…" What have we done here?’ Pushing the music that far out from what we’d done before initially felt contentious, to say the least." He later described the song as a showcase of the band having ambitions “beyond what we once thought we were capable of”.{{Cite web |last=Geraghty |first=Hollie |date=2022-10-24 |title=Arctic Monkeys reflect on lasting impact of 'A Certain Romance' |url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/arctic-monkeys-reflect-on-lasting-impact-of-a-certain-romance-3334531 |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=NME |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Sophie |date=2022-10-21 |title=Arctic Monkeys: "We know more tricks now, but we're still rolling on that same instinct" |url=https://www.nme.com/big-reads/arctic-monkeys-cover-interview-2022-the-car-3332436 |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=NME |language=en-GB}} The band performed the song often in their early years,{{Cite web |date=2008-09-12 |title=Arctic Monkeys to Issue Live DVD |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/30177-arctic-monkeys-to-issue-live-dvd/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2006-07-01 |title=Star-Telegram {{!}} 06/08/2006 {{!}} Arctic Monkeys fast and furious |url=http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/14769078.htm |access-date=2024-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060701040901/http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/14769078.htm |archive-date=2006-07-01 }} and have performed it occasionally since.{{Cite web |date=2023-06-10 |title=Arctic Monkeys Revive "A Certain Romance" in Sheffield: Watch |url=https://consequence.net/2023/06/arctic-monkeys-a-certain-romance-sheffield-watch/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Aubrey |first=Elizabeth |date=2023-06-09 |title=Watch Arctic Monkeys open Sheffield homecoming gig with 'A Certain Romance' |url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/arctic-monkeys-homecoming-sheffield-gig-a-certain-romance-3453736 |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=NME |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |title=Arctic Monkeys open first of two homecoming shows at Hillsborough Park with A Certain Romance: Full setlist |url=https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/arctic-monkeys/setlist-sheffield-hillsborough-park-9th-june-2023-a-certain-romance/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Radio X |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Thomas |date=2023-06-24 |title=Arctic Monkeys live at Glastonbury: mercurial, magical stuff from a band on fine form |url=https://www.nme.com/reviews/live/arctic-monkeys-live-at-glastonbury-setlist-photos-3460359 |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=NME |language=en-GB}}

"A Certain Romance" is an alternative rock song, the longest track on Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not,{{Cite magazine |last=Walters |first=Barry |date=2006-02-21 |title=Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-im-not-201301/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}} and was written by Turner in his teens.{{Cite news |last=Petridis |first=Alexis |date=2022-09-08 |title=Arctic Monkeys' 20 greatest songs – ranked! |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/08/arctic-monkeys-20-greatest-songs-ranked |access-date=2024-02-05 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} Lyrically, it follows his observation of the activities of youth, and the romance and lack of it among them.{{Cite web |date=2020-09-21 |title=Arctic Monkeys' debut gave a fresh perspective on the exploits of youth |url=https://www.abc.net.au/listen/doublej/music-reads/features/arctic-monkeys-whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-im-not/12684658 |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Double J |language=en-AU}}{{Cite web |date=2009-11-28 |title=100 Tracks of the Decade {{!}} #10 Arctic Monkeys - A Certain Romance (2006) {{!}} NME.COM |website=NME |url=http://www.nme.com/list/100-tracks-of-the-decade/158050/article/159115 |access-date=2024-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091128102344/http://www.nme.com/list/100-tracks-of-the-decade/158050/article/159115 |archive-date=2009-11-28 }}{{Cite journal |last=Flanagan |first=Paul J |date=March 15, 2019 |title='A Certain Romance': Style shifting in the language of Alex Turner in Arctic Monkeys songs 2006–2018 |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0963947019827075 |journal=Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics |language=en |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=82–98 |doi=10.1177/0963947019827075 |issn=0963-9470|hdl=10034/622139 |hdl-access=free }} At first he is scornful, though he eventually feels sympathy and sorrow for them, and accepts that "there isn't no romance around there." The music was composed by the members of the band, including bassist Andy Nicholson, who left after the album was released.{{Cite web |last=NME |date=2006-05-22 |title=Exclusive - Arctic Monkeys lose a member |url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/arctic-monkeys-618-1357037 |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=NME |language=en-GB}} It features a wordless two-minute guitar solo intended to express emotions through the instruments themselves, a sound the band would replicate in their 2022 album The Car.

File:Glasto2023 (118 of 468) (53009329130).jpg in 2023]]

"A Certain Romance" received positive reviews from critics.{{Cite web |last=Campbell |first=Anna |date=2016-01-18 |title=A Certain Romance — remembering Arctic Monkeys' debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What… |url=https://medium.com/@queensnknaves/a-certain-romance-remembering-arctic-monkeys-debut-album-whatever-people-say-i-am-that-s-what-i-449e8e273022 |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Medium |language=en}} Writing for Rolling Stone magazine, Barry Walters praised the "hyper-realistic observations" Turner made and believed the track "sums up" the album. Later, Rolling Stone wrote that "What starts as a critique of people who are ostensibly less sophisticated, stylish, or romantic, soon becomes an astute deconstruction of the snark, cynicism, and us-vs-them posturing endemic to youth. It’s a rather tender, empathetic note to land on, and Arctic Monkeys emphasize it not with words, but two dueling livewire guitars twisting around each other in a perfect tangle of uncertainty and exultation."{{Cite magazine |date=2023-08-25 |title=The 30 Best Arctic Monkeys Songs |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-arctic-monkeys-songs-1234807888/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}} Alexis Petridis of The Guardian called it an "insightful, oddly moving dissection of the chav phenomenon."{{Cite news |last=Petridis |first=Alexis |date=2006-01-13 |title=Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/jan/13/popandrock.shopping6 |access-date=2024-02-05 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} NME described it as "a strangely even-handed song which starts out scorning local townies then appears to absolve them at the end of the song."

Paste magazine's Matt Mitchell said "No choruses can be found here, only a climax of a towering, skyrocketing, shape-shifting guitar solo that lends a hand to the gods—the only spirit that could possibly be higher than what Turner and the band take to the bank". Mitchell also believed it featured "some of Turner's best wordplay and language-crafting".{{Cite web |title=The 40 Greatest Arctic Monkeys Songs |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/arctic-monkeys/40-greatest-arctic-monkeys-songs |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Paste Magazine |language=en-US}} Far Out magazine called the song "the last of its kind—the last joyously unpretentious offering of collectivism that defines an entire generation with poetic sympathy rather than the cool kid stance of cynically singing for the chosen few in a manufactured gang spawned from the fractured internet age where all the friends have moved online."{{Cite web |date=2023-02-12 |title=The 10 best Arctic Monkeys songs of all time |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-10-best-arctic-monkeys-songs/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}} Scott Plagenhoef of Pitchfork described it as "a neat summation of both the band’s M.O. and a teenage life characterized by existential drift and geographic claustrophobia" and suggested the band release the track as a single.{{Cite web |title=Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/497-whatever-people-say-i-am-thats-what-im-not/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}} Online music magazine MusicOMH said that it is "a wonderfully articulate dissection of youth culture that belies Turner's tender years".{{Cite web |date=2010-01-14 |title=Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I Am Not {{!}} album reviews {{!}} musicOMH |url=http://musicomh.com/albums/arctic-monkeys_1205.htm |access-date=2024-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100114134611/http://musicomh.com/albums/arctic-monkeys_1205.htm |archive-date=2010-01-14 }} Radio X called it a "fine end to a fine debut album".{{Cite web |title=10 closings tracks that ended 10 classic albums |url=https://www.radiox.co.uk/features/x-lists/10-closing-tracks-that-ended-10-classic-albums/ |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=Radio X |language=en}}

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Category:2006 songs

Category:Arctic Monkeys songs

Category:Songs written by Jamie Cook

Category:Songs written by Matt Helders

Category:Songs written by Alex Turner (musician)