#a certain romance

[haveyoureadthisfanfic]

Summary: 1. An old "friend" of Bucky's is one of Selby's guards. Zemo and Sam have no idea but Bucky absolutely does, what a shame that he has a role to play. 2. Rumlow has been biding his time, working for Selby in exchange for information about the soldier's whereabouts - conveniently the winter soldier is about to show up on their doorstep with a new handler. OR: an extended rehash of That One Scene in tfatws s01e03: Power Broker from two different perspectives.

Author: @ex0rin

Submitter: @AzkannaSharpe

Note from submitter: Wow! Another scorching dark fic by Exorin, perfect for anyone who LOVES rumlow/crossbones and winterbones dark fic. It's perfect and both sides of this fic parallel fantastically, if you like rehashing a story from multiple perspectives this series is for you. It hurt me as much as it sizzled. 💔 

[avxoxo1]

[daddy-long-legssss]

The Story Behind The Song: Arctic Monkeys’ early ambitions on ‘A Certain Romance’

Lucy Harbron – Far Out Magazine | January 17, 2024

It was 2006. Mortgages were crashing, and businesses were going bust. Tony Blair was on his last legs in office as the longest-serving prime minister since Margaret Thatcher, and the hangover of ‘Cool Brittania’ was beginning to set in with an unexpected ferocity. Things were bleak when a young Alex Turner sang, ���There ain’t no romance around there” through the public’s speakers. Arctic Monkeys were about to write themselves into musical history as the voice of a new generation.

The final song on their debut album, there has always been something special about ‘A Certain Romance’. In 2022, after the release of their seventh album, The Car, Turner seemed to find himself reflecting back on that 2006 track. To the musician, that early cut holds a clue to everything that was to come as he said the piece “showed that we did actually have these ambitions beyond what we once thought we were capable of”.

Coming in at over the five-minute mark, ‘A Certain Romance’ almost feels like the Arctic Monkeys’ version of a rock opera, summarising all the themes, feelings and energy that came before it on their seminal album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. It has the cheekiness of ‘Fake Tales Of San Francisco’ and the catchy instrumentals of hits like ‘Dancing Shoes’ or ‘I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor’. Utilising the northern charm of ‘Mardy Bum’, it stands as a final, neatly summarising point on the social commentary found in their early tracks like ‘From The Ritz To The Rubble’ or ‘Riot Van’. Really, it could be argued that ‘A Certain Romance’ is the ultimate example of Arctic Monkeys’ original sound, perfectly encapsulating all the things that made the world listen up and pay attention.

It’s like they seemed to know that, too, always allowing the song a special place. In fact, it was really the band’s opening remark. Years before the offer of a debut album came around, the group were a well-oiled machine with their own local hits. They had the northern live music scene in their hands as their homemade demo CD was passed around like everyone’s worst-kept secret. Beneath the Boardwalk features eight out of the 13 songs that would be on Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, albeit in a slightly different, lower-quality version. But the opening number, ‘A Certain Romance’, sounds just the same.

It’s all there, from the rolling opening drums to that final guitar solo. Recorded and produced in a rented studio at only age 17, the existence of ‘A Certain Romance’, one of the band’s most explorative and energetic numbers, in this form this early in their career feels like a diamond sitting in a mine. It proves that they were always onto something special.

They never needed any help. In fact, their producer, Jim Abbiss, noted that they even seemed nervous about the help. “I think they were probably a bit weary, like ‘who’s this guy? And is he gonna make our sound this or that.’”

They didn’t want anything to change too much, as the group already had the songs figured out. Turner certainly did, as the track’s meandering narrative about hometown lads, fights, and local boredom is already there. Talking on a podcast, original member Andy Nicholson revealed the story behind the song. “We had a practice room with a pool table in, and we had a party in there, and we invited another band who were friends of ours, and we all had some drinks,” he said. “Then something happened, someone throws a pool cue, someone throws a pool ball, and everyone ends up fighting,” he added, explaining the lyrics, “there’s boys in bands / And kids who like to scrap with pool cues in their hands.”

But the magic of Arctic Monkeys lies in their nuance. What begins as a snooty analysis of his local landscape is a genuinely affectionate take. “Well, over there, there’s friends of mine / What can I say? I’ve known ’em for a long long time / And, yeah, they might overstep the line / But you just cannot get angry in the same way,” Turner sings, looking around at his bandmates and lifelong friends. ‘A Certain Romance’ is not only a time capsule for the group’s beginnings but is an ode to all the people who were there with them. It’s an ode to the hometown that made them and all its various characters.

But as the last guitar solo roars to life, there is an unspoken statement that they’re going to be bigger than what they came from. “I remember when we were recording ‘A Certain Romance’ and having a conversation with the producer about the final guitar solo,” Turner told NME, recalling the moment these songs were reworked for their debut. But they wouldn’t let anyone mess with ‘A Certain Romance’, knowing exactly what they were doing and trying to say with that one. In the 2003 demo version, all the feeling is already there, and Turner wouldn’t risk it.

“There’s something that happens at the end of that track where we break some rules in a single moment,” he continued. What happens at the end of the piece feels even more special, considering how the album was recorded. “These are the songs we wanna do, and I think this is the order we wanna do them in,” Alex Turner told their producer, recounting the conversation in 2007 to RadioX, “And he goes, ‘alright, we’ll try to record them in that order as well.’” As the final song, that last guitar solo is the last thing recorded for the album, standing as a cathartic outlet and a chance for the band to prove themselves.

“We focused on the [emotional] effect of the instrumentals over the words,” Turner reflected on the track, concluding, “and I feel like we’ve been trying to do that again and again since then.”

+

[dailyamlyrics]

“Don’t get me wrong, oh, there’s boys in bands.”

[musicandotherstuff]

A Certain Romance - Hillsborough Park, Sheffield

09/06/2023

(Source)

[dillweed1236]

(2006) Arctic Monkeys - A Certian Romance

Live at Liverpool 2005 MTV

[rastronomicals]

11:24 AM EDT October 6, 2024:

Arctic Monkeys - "A Certain Romance" From the album   Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (January 23, 2006)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under: All Too Clever For Their Own Good Rock

--

[spn-lesbian]

the thing about a certain romance is that it’s perfect but I cannot listen to it without saying “that man just yawned”

[jackleopard]

a certain romance is soooo good........

[theantitheticallogician]

many great things may happen on this earth, but there will never be another "a certain romance" intro guitar solo

[lordgroose]

Arctic Monkeys - A Certain Romance

[humbug220]

[daddy-long-legssss]

'A Certain Romance' 🤝 ‘Leave Before The Lights Come On'

[dailyamlyrics]

"They’d probably like to throw a punch at me."

[musicandotherstuff]

A CERTAIN ROMANCE OH MY GOSH AAAAAA

[thegirlintheredsunglasses]

Do you ever listen to ‘A Certain Romance’ and think about how the lyric “there’s only music so that there’s new ringtones” was such a clever, precise, snarky, fleeting cultural observation for the time.

And then by the time AM came out, and honestly even before. (You could argue ‘Suck It And See’) it wasn’t relevant anymore. Those four seconds of music, the perfect length for a ringtone, found itself as fleeting as the subject matter itself.

And it’s just so painfully Alex. Condensing half a decade of societal behavior into one line that he knows won’t make sense for much longer than it does because of the absurdity of the concept.

To be fifteen years old and listen to WPSIATWIN, felt so impacting. Even being American. These brash observations about the world around you as a young person. Fuck yeah man, you’re right. There’s only music so that there’s new ringtones!!

These are the kinds of things Alex Turner does that inspire my writing so deeply. The way he can make a reference to something so hyper-specific to a place and time that still makes sense over 15 years later because the idea behind the concept is universal. A fifteen year old today could listen to ACR and understand what he means because now there’s only music so that there’s new tiktok trends.

But all of that’s what the point is not. The point is that Alex Turner is not just one of the greatest songwriters of his generation. He’s one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th and 21st centuries. And people don’t talk about that enough.