I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am

Album: The Car (2022)
Charted: 23
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Songfacts®:

  • Alex Turner's lyrics are often opaque. Case in point: "I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am." The references to "retina scans," "disco strobes" and the like have left us scratching our heads. Here's what we can glean:

    The lyrics suggest Turner is mixing with other celebrities.

    But it's always worth half a blast
    You know the face but you can't see past


    He's on a yacht:

    Wait, there's the other island now
    Formation displays of affection fly over
    Eyes roll back
    And I can see both islands now


    The yacht is approaching the coast of the French Riviera:

    Looks like the Riviera
    Is coming into land


    Turner repeats the title three times during the song, signifying he's disorientated and feeling out of place.

    Blank expressions invite me to suspect
    I ain't quite where I think I am
  • When Turner wrote the song, he was spending a lot of time in France with his girlfriend, the French singer-songwriter Louise Verneuil.
  • Alex Turner wrote the funky song with Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders. The band's regular producer, James Ford, helmed the track.
  • Arctic Monkeys debuted "I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am" during their show at Zurich Openair festival in Switzerland on August 23, 2022.
  • Ben Chappell and Zackery Michael directed the live video. They filmed it at Brooklyn's Kings Theatre in September 2022.
  • The funky number features interweaving wah-wah guitar. Turner experimented with the wah-wah guitar on both "Jet Skis On The Moat" and "I Ain't Quite Where I Think I Am." It was, he told NME, the latter song "where everything clicked."

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