Suck It and See

Album: Suck It And See (2011)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is the title track of British alternative rock band Arctic Monkeys' fourth album. It was the first time that the group had recorded a song with the same name as the album.
  • Monkeys singer and principal songwriter Alex Turner started writing this song around the time he was recording the soundtrack for the 2011 feature film Submarine. He told NME: "It just sort of came to me that melody and chorus, it's quite Beach Boys-y which is something I've been listening to a lot recently, and always have. We decided to make it the title track quite near the end."
  • The song finds Turner singing, "You're rarer than a can of dandelion & burdock/And the other girls are just post-mix lemonade." Dandelion and burdock is a traditional British soft drink, which has been drunk in the British Isles since about 1265. It is made from fermented dandelion and burdock roots, and is naturally fizzy. Turner told NME: "A lot of people don't get that and don't realise what it is. Something I like the idea of is putting colloquialisms where they feel strange – especially in some of the other tunes like the fuzzy, heavier ones, it feels quite funny when you can drop in something very British next to 'Raw Power' guitars."
  • NME asked drummer Matt Helders if the album title can be read as a direct link to the band's previous album Humbug? He replied: "We liked that ambiguity to it. To me it sounds like an atypical British thing. I don't think it's a saying that people worldwide would use or even understand."
  • The CD cover features the title in black on a cream background. Despite its simple design the cover drew the ire of some American store chains. "They think it is rude, disrespectful," Alex Turner told XFM radio in an interview. "They're putting a sticker over it in America in certain stores, big ones."
  • The song and album title is British slang meaning you should try something to find out what happens.
  • Focus Creeps, whose previous work includes videos for Girls and Neon Indian, directed the song's music video. It stars Matt Helders as a biker fugitive who is tormented by his girlfriend. Said the directors: "Inspired by past lost weekends' in LA, from Lennon to Lemmy, the music video for the 'Suck It And See' imagines: what if a rock and roller were lost altogether and never came back? The video is a behind the scenes fragments of Matt Helders' outlaw 'lost weekend' out in the Wild West."

    Aaron Brown of Focus Creeps told NME: "The whole video is Matts Helder playing Lemmy, if his first girlfriend didn't die and he never became a musician and was just a normal guy: dysfunctional, f---ed up. I wasn't really into the guy we first cast and Al (Turner) was like 'What if Matt did it.'"

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Supertramp founder Roger Hodgson

Supertramp founder Roger HodgsonSongwriter Interviews

Roger tells the stories behind some of his biggest hits, including "Give a Little Bit," "Take the Long Way Home" and "The Logical Song."

Hardy

HardySongwriter Interviews

The country hitmaker talks about his debut album, A Rock, and how a nursery rhyme inspired his hit single "One Beer."

Arrested For Your Art - The Story Of 2 Live Crew's "Obscene" Album

Arrested For Your Art - The Story Of 2 Live Crew's "Obscene" AlbumSong Writing

In the summer of 1990, you could get arrested for selling a 2 Live Crew album or performing their songs in Southern Florida. And that's exactly what happened.

Weird Al Yankovic

Weird Al YankovicFact or Fiction

Did Al play on a Beach Boys record? Did he have beef with George Lucas and Coolio? See if you can spot weird but true stories.

The Truth Is Out There: A History of Alien Songs

The Truth Is Out There: A History of Alien SongsSong Writing

The trail runs from flying saucer songs in the '50s, through Bowie, blink-182 and Katy Perry.

Michelle Branch

Michelle BranchSongwriter Interviews

Michelle Branch talks about "Everywhere," "The Game Of Love," and her run-in with a Christian broadcasting network.