Words by Alex Turner, music by Arctic Monkeys

Published by EMI Music Publishing Ltd

Tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 produced by Joshua Homme
Engineered by Alain Johannes assisted by Justin Smith
Recorded at Pink Duck Studios and Rancho de la Luna
Tracks 2 and 5 additional engineering by Claudius Mittendorfer
Tracks 1, 4 and 7 produced by James Ford
Engineered by Alain Johannes
Recorded at Mission Sound, Brooklyn
Backing vocals on tracks 1 and 2 by John Ashton
Additional vocals on track 6 by Alison Mosshart
Keys on tracks 1, 2 and 7 by John Ashton
All tracks mixed by Rich Costey at Electric Lady Studios, New York
Mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk, New York
To Hutch and Dave, thanks for your hospitality
Management: Geoff Barradale and Ian McAndrew for Wildlife Entertainment Ltd
Cover photography by Guy Aroch
Booklet photography by Guy Aroch, Chapman Baehler, Mark Bull and Justin Smith
Design by Matthew Cooper

DNO 237 p&c2009 Domino Recording Co Ltd 55 Washington Street, Suite 458, Brooklyn NY 11201
www.arcticmonkeys.com www.dominorecordco.us
If you can summon the strength tow me Outside the café by the cracker factory you were practicing a magic trick.
I can’t hold down the urgency And my thoughts got rude as you talked and chewed on the last of your pick and mix.
You’ve got to make your descent slowly You said “You’re mistaken if you’re thinking that I haven’t been called ‘cold’ before”
And oil up those sticky keys as you bit into your strawberry lace.
Coax me out my low and have a spin of my propeller Then offered me your attention in the form of a gobstopper
it’s all you had left and it was going to waste
It’s a necessary evil
No cause for emergency Your pastimes consisted of the strange, the twisted and deranged
Borrowed the beak off a bald eagle and I loved that little game you had called ‘Crying Lightning’
Momentary synergy and how you liked to aggravate the ice cream man on rainy afternoons

Coax me out my low The next time that I caught my own reflection it was on its way to meet you,
Sink in to tomorrow thinking of excuses to postpone.
Coax me out my low and have a spin of my propeller You never looked like yourself from the side but your profile could not hide
the fact you knew I was approaching your throne.
My propeller won’t spin and I can’t get it started on my own With folded arms you occupied the bench like toothache,
When are you arriving? stood and puffed your chest out like you’d never lost a war.
My Propeller Although I tried so not to suffer the indignity of a reaction
there was no cracks to grasp or gaps to claw
And your pastimes consisted of the strange, the twisted and deranged
and I hate that little game you had called ‘Crying Lightning’
and how you liked to aggravate the ice cream man on rainy afternoons.
Uninviting, but not half as impossible as everyone assumes you are.

I’m pinned down by the dark. Fools on parade cavort and carry on for waiting eyes
Been fighting with my sheets and nearly crying in my sleep. Ones you would rather be beside than in front of
Yes I’m battling that well told gripe, She’s never been the kind to be hollowed by the stares
the most frustrating type, She swam out of tonight’s phantasm, grabbed my hand and made it very clear
You should have racing stripes the way you keep me in pursuit There’s absolutely nothing for us here.
You sharpen the heel of your boot and you press it in my chest It’s a magnolia celebration to be attended on a Wednesday night
And you make me wheeze It’s better that than get a reputation as a miserable little tyke
Then to my knees you promote me. At least that’s the conclusion she came to in this overture.
I’m pinned down by the dark The secret door swings behind us,
(A-N-I-M-A-L) She’s saying nothing, she’s just giggling along
She makes my head pirouette more than I would be willing to confess Her arms were folded most indignant not looking like she was soon to leave,
(D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S ) I had to squint in order to believe.
Like a butler pushing on a bookshelf and unveiling the unexpected
The light it fidgets through, the thoughts will soon revert to you.
I who was earlier reluctant was suddenly embarrassed and corrected
About as bashful as a tribal dance,
How could such a creature survive in such a habitat?
the first and final chance
And of course the audience of frighteners and fiends, The secret door swings behind us,
divided up into two teams. She’s saying nothing, she’s just giggling along
When the acrobat fell off the beam she broke everyone’s heart. Even if they were to find us, I wouldn’t notice,
I’m completely occupied
I’m pinned down by the dark
As all the Fools on parade cavort and carry on for waiting eyes
(A-N-I-M-A-L) Ones you would rather be beside than in front of
She makes my head pirouette more than I would be willing to confess She’s never been the kind to be hollowed by the stares.
(D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S ) Fools on parade frolic and fuck about
(D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S) To make a gaze turn to a scribble on a page by a picture that holds her absence
The most unsuitable pet, it’s been long enough now so let’s make a mess lioness but you’re daft to think she’d care
I’m pinned down by the dark Fools on parade conduct a sing-along
I was biting the time zone
and we embellished the banks of our bloodstreams
and threw caution to the colourful
Then we fell asleep in the car
Until the bumps woke me up in your grip
and the tide took me to your mouth
and then swept me back down to your palms
It’s them that put me inside the reminder that
Yours is the only ocean
that I want to swing from
Yours is the only ocean
that I want to hang on
I’ve got this ego mechanic
She’s always trying to give me vitamins
She’d be frightened of your reflection
I preferred her as a cartoon
If I could be someone else for a week
I’d still spend it chasing after you
She’s not shattering my attitudes
no matter how she folds the potion
Yours is the only ocean
that I want to swing from
Yours is the only ocean
that I want to hang on
Potion Approaching
Shield your eyes
Potion Approaching
Visualise
Holding a token
Swollen in size
Potion Approaching
Shield your eyes
If we’re going to escape though
We really ought to think it through
Would you like me to build you a go kart?
You showed me my tomorrow I thought I saw you in The Battleship but it was only a lookalike
Beside a box of matches She was nothing but a vision trick under the warning light
A welcomed threatening stir She was close, close enough to be your ghost
My hopes of being stolen But my chances turned to toast when I asked her if I could call her your name
Might just ring true I thought I saw you in The Rusty Hook, huddled up in a wicker chair
Depends who you prefer I wandered over for a closer look and kissed whoever was sitting there
She was close and she held me very tightly until I asked awfully politely
If it’s true you are going to run away
Tell me where, I’ll meet you there “Please can I call you her name?”
Am I snapping the excitement I elongated my lift home
If I pack away the laughter and tell you how it feels? I let him go the long way round
I smelt your scent on the seat belt and kept my short cuts to myself
And does burden come to meet you
If I’ve questions of the feature that rolls on your dream reel? I thought I saw you in The Parrot’s Beak messing with the smoke alarm
It was too loud for me to hear her speak and she had a broken arm
The day after you stole my heart It was close, so close that the walls were wet
Everything I touched told me it would be better shared with you And she wrote it out in Letraset
And you’re hiding in my soup “No, you can’t call me her name”
And the book reveals your face Tell me where’s your hiding place
And you’re splashing in my eyelids I’m worried I’ll forget your face
As the concentration continually breaks I’ve asked everyone
I did request the mark you cast didn’t heal as fast I’m beginning to think I imagined you all along
I hear your voice in silences
Will the teasing of the fire be followed by the thud? I saw your sister in The Cornerstone on the phone to the middle man
When I saw that she was on her own I thought she might understand
In the jostling crowd She was close, well you couldn’t get much closer
You’re not allowed She said “I’m really not supposed to but yes, you can call me anything you want”
To tell the truth
And the photo booth’s a liar!
There’s a sharpened explanation
But there’s no screaming reason to enquire
I’d like to poke them in their prying eyes with things
They’d never see if it smacked them in their temples
I heard the truth was built to bend.
A mechanism to suspend the guilt is what you will require
and still you’ve got to dance little liar
It’s just like those fibs to pop and fizz
and you’ll be forced to take that awful quiz
and you’re bound to trip and she’ll detect the fiction on your lips
dig a contradiction up
The clean coming will hurt
and you can never get it spotless
when there’s dirt beneath the dirt
The liar takes a lot less time
I’m sure it’s clear and plain to read
It’s not an alibi you need just yet
Oh no, it’s something for those beads of sweat,
yes that will get you back to normal
And after you have dabbed the patch
you’ll breathe and then proceed to scratch the varnish off that newly
added calmness so as not to raise any alarms too soon
The liar takes a lot less time to decide on the saunter
Have you got itchy bones and in all your time alone
can you hack your mind being riddled with the wrong memories?
The clean coming will hurt
and you can never get it spotless
When there’s dirt in between the dirt
Trudging through the morning and the tramp with the trampoline under his arm, shifts past
your whiskers so stark is the charm but the barking alarm waits coiled until the corner is turned
And the bicycle wheels all struggle to move round in your muddy mind blatantly caked
and unwilling to wind uncooperative time so he sits on the springs until the muck goes dry
All the pretty visitors came and waved their arms and cast the shadow of a snake pit on the wall
What came first the chicken or the dickhead?
Split sleep reaps rewards from ill fitting thoughts
And twilight forced you to go on a walk, your legs start running and your head gets caught
Canopy 19 is perfectly placed for the reasonably frightening fall from the aftertaste
You’ll have to slip away I am unhappy to say, behold is the crook in the hammock plays
All the pretty visitors came and waved their arms and cast the shadow of a snake pit on the wall
Behold there’s a crook in the hammock plays cruelly with the base of the scales
And fiddles with the feet on a balancing act
Gagged, bound and crafting a tale
Trailing wrapped in a gasp
Cruelly with the base and the scales
And fucking fiddles with the feet on a balancing act
Gagged, bound and crafting a tale
Trailing wrapped in a gasp
Fiendish wonder in the carnival’s wake
Dull caresses once again irritate
Tread softly stranger
Move over toward the danger that you seek
You think excitement has receded then the mirror distracts
The logic of the trance quickly reaches and grasps
Handsome and faceless and weightless your imagination runs
And now it’s no ones fault but yours, at the foot of the house of cards
You thought you’d never get obsessed
You thought the wolves would be impressed
And you’re a sinking stone
But you know what it’s like to hold the jeweller’s hands
That procession of pioneers all drowned
In the moonlight they’re more thrilling those things that he knows
As he leads you through the grinning bubble blowers in the snow
Watching his exit was like falling off the ferry in the night
The inevitables gather to push you around
Any other voice makes such a punishing sound
It became laughter’s assassin shortly after he showed you what it was
And now it’s no ones fault but yours, at the foot of the house of cards
You thought you’d never get obsessed
You thought the wolves would be impressed
And you’re a sinking stone,
But you know what it’s like to hold the jeweller’s hands
That procession of pioneers all drowned
If you’ve a lesson to teach me I’m listening, ready to learn
There’s no one here to police me I’m sinking in until the return
If you’ve a lesson to teach please don’t deviate, don’t be afraid,
Without the last corner piece I can’t calibrate, let’s get it engraved