Free Love Revival

The perfectly presented version of Alex Turner is Mr. Snarl. THE costume he can't escape. He rules over that miniature palace and all its treasures while Al Turner is building models, dreaming up futures Mr. Snarl could never imagine. And Al wears a white suit...

The backstage setting and presence of those floodlights remind me of another music video from two years before, with another white suit:

Nobody is talking enough about this video at the beginning, when our Alex walks behind our Miles and spanks him.

I love this little moments. I'm finding so many little moments that people don't talk about.

It's the way Miles Looks at Alex and the way Alex Smiles at Miles.

That's their thing and it sickens me.

My gosh anon, it'll literally soon be a year since this ask 🙈. I'm so sorry! I've actually not checked my inbox until my comeback last week, so I truly didn't see it. But it really made me smile that despite me basically disappearing, you still wanted to come in here and write this 💛 It's so wonderful to see that my posts still reach people and even validate their own feelings about the songs (great minds, indeed! Just another confirmation that we've correctly broken "the code" 😌).

I hope maybe you manage to see this at some point despite it being so long since you asked.

But back to the actual message - oh my god, yes. It felt incredible actually. I know interpretations are... Just that. Interpretations. And I've made quite a few wild assumptions here and there, for the fun of it. But Star Treatment always felt like one of the most convincing Miles songs to me. So having him literally sing (/recite) it to him. Finger pointing and all, and so goddamn solemnly too. I'm afraid he just sealed the deal right there and I'll never change my mind about this being a Miles song.

(HE! POINTS! AT! MILES! FOR! DOLLS LIKE YOU AND ME! Come onnnnnnn. He serenades in his direction from that point onwards, COME ONNN)

Also - that Star Treatment outro within I Wanna Be Yours almost killed me the first time he ever did it, and to this day whenever I go back to listen to it my heart clenches in my chest because there's something so vulnerable & achingly heartfelt about it (I may be projecting, but that's also what I'm here for, so 🤷🏻‍♀️) - so that moment with Miles was double murderous for me.

Oh. And just to make this answer even longer - through all the time that's passed from me quickly scribbling down those Star Treatment thoughts, I've had so many other thoughts about certain lyrics, and I'm almost surprised I missed them in that initial post (but that's how good art works. You always discover new layers. And other people's contributions have definitely helped me get to new places with it too). Maybe I'll make an update one day.

(For now though: one of those things is interpreting "Rocket-ship grease down the cracks of my knuckles" as an innuendo, basically. And I have to say... I see it. I see it even more after the way he chose to gesticulate during that line in Dublin 👀.... It's a bit of a stretch, because the gesture's vague enough and he does lots of random things with his hands when he sings. But... I don't know. Worth noting. To me) (Or maybe I just have a dirty mind).

Hey, long time no see! Last weeks had been rough but I'm here with brand-new analysis. It was just out of my expectations how this song connects with A HUGE AMMOUNT of tlsp songs. Yes, I know that that specific one is a cover. But should be a reason why they chose it not only as a song to perform but also as the one to make a music video for?

As always, I can't even imagine what's going on in Alex or Miles mind so it's just my interpretation.

You were the promise at dawn

I was the morning after

Remember "And if you're bothered, I don't want your prayers. Save it for the morning after" from Teddy Picker? Really Miles-shaped (incredible @misskattylashes pointed an opportunity of Kane experiencing a catholic guilt in this post).

Also, according to Genius, can be meaningfully connected with "Do I Wanna Know"

You were Jesus Christ my Lord

I was the money lender

I personally like to think about these specific lines in context of crime fiction. Jesus Christ is a pure good while money lander in every gangster movie I've ever seen causes BIG troubles. Always portraited as the worst of all the bad guys

You were the sensitive woman

I was the very reverend Freud

Okey. Sensitive woman (?) means that she can be easy leaded by someone's ideas. But what about Freud? Sigmund Freud is a former father of psyhoanalysis. His analysis of dreams (dream synopsis) as wish fulfillments provided him with models for the clinical analysis of symptom formation and the underlying mechanisms of repression (proves my previous theory from line one).

The main tenets of classical psychoanalysis are as follows:

Human behavior, experience, and cognition are largely determined by internal and usually irrational drives;

attempts to understand these drives lead to psychological resistance in the form of defense mechanisms ("I’ve got this ego mechanic" from Pottion approaching has really similar meaning)

But why revended? Sigmund had really questionable ideas and methods. I think that it can hint us to Reverend Musical Instruments. Commonly known as Reverend Guitars, is an American manufacturer of electric guitars and basses. Turner compares himself as a musician to the famous psyhologist. Both too courageous with their ideas.

You were the manual orgasm

I was the dirty little boy

Manual means something which is made by instructions. Right, how it should be. Man+woman if you dare. While Alex, singing that song, is some kind of the tempting serpent.

And is this what you wanted

To live in a house that is haunted

By the ghost of you and me?

"I just wanted to be one of those ghosts you thought that you could forget" from Start treatment, extremely Milex song, talks about regret about for own actions. Turner is the only ghost there. While in "Is this what you wanted?" there are two ghosts. Someone who is invisible for audience (not for Milex fandom, through) but is clearly here, haunts the narrative since first AM album( I'm talking about you, "You probably couldn't see for the lights...").

The word haunted can also be connected with my beloved "Dracula Teeth" but EYCTE in general is really mystically-centered.

You were Marlon Brando

I was Steve Mcqueen

Genius sugests that these two can be included because of connections with mafia during their acting ages. And I really can't imagine why did Leonard Cohen chose them. But for you to know: Marlon Brando was clearly bisexual (confirmed publicly and wasn't ashamed of it) while Steve Mcqueen was always known as the main macho man of his time — similar to Alex during AM era, you know?

You were K.Y. Jelly

I was vaseline

Can I not comment on this line? Yes? Thank you

You were the father of modern medicine

I was Mr. Clean

So, my interpretation of these words is that the singer views himself only as a beautiful but useless picture while his partner is a hidden gem, genius. Knowing how Alex speaks loftily about Miles, it's really them-coded

You where the whore and the beast of Babylon

I was Rin Tin Tin

Let's discuss the Whore of Babylon.

...We know the Whore of Babylon is the High Priesthood because she wears “purple and scarlet” (the vestment colors of the Jerusalem priests) and she is adorned in precious stones. Outfit, as I see it, really similar to the one Miles wearing in "Is this what you wanted" mv.

The “Whore of Babylon” refers to how the Jewish priesthood has become a “whore” or “prostitute” providing her intimate services not to God but to pagan Rome. A widely regarded indication of whether a person was a pagan or a Christian was their partaking in ritual sacrifice. Not only the bloody mess but also sexual practices, when the gender of partner isn't the most important thing.

The end of Revelation 17 explain how the Beast will eventually turn on the Whore of Babylon and make her dead. The duality of throughts here: you want it but you should destroy that specific part of your personality.

Rin Tin Tin  was a male German Shepherd born in Flirey, France, that became an international star in motion pictures. The trained dog was an immediate box-office success and went on to appear in 27 Hollywood films, gaining worldwide fame. And yes, that's how the industry works. Not only for dogs but also for people celebrities: just train them right and there will be a goldmine.

While The whore and the beast of Babylon is something sublime, Tin Tin is just another entertainer

...You got old and wrinkled

I stayed seventeen

Another vampire problem, don't care, haha. But speaking seriously, this line can also be connected with fame. Throughout the song we can hear the singer speaking about his fate as a part of people's entertainment routine. So in their minds he'll always be "seventeen" (young) while his partner lives a normal live

You lusted after so many baby

I lay here with one

You defied your solitude

I came through alone

Spoke about Milex dynamic with some person and made a conclusion that it can easily be a discription of them. Of course none of us know how is was/is but let's accept that as a theory

You said that you could never love me

I undid your gown...

"Could never love" because of internal homophobia. But at the end of the day the singer knows what he wants and how to get it

Happy 15th Birthday to Suck It And See ✨

So many amazing lyrics in this (often overlooked) album. What’s your favourite? This is mine:

🤍 🤍🤍

Just watched that incredibly talented movie and I'm already head over heels about it! Anyways, there are some look alike frames from Four Out of Five mv. Inspiration is obvious.

Also the fact that Body paint mv took it cinematic part from The Parallax View — movie of the same director and even the same trilogy (The Paranoia Trilogy). It was confirmed during an interview with clip creators.

What were some of the cited inspirations behind the feel of the video?

FM: Ben and Alex Turner had some clips from 60s live TV performances they were bouncing around. The zoetrope literally came to Brook in a dream and found its way into the video. The recruitment test film from The Parallax View (as well as the film as a whole) is a very present inspiration for us too.

Would be questionable if Alex haven't watched Alan J. Pakula's movies before.

But why exactly "All the president's men"? Idk, maybe because in the movie two journalists are revealing a huge lie together. I also know about two people who do the same thing, maybe just with a little less courage. All the hints which are easy to find when you know the context.

Alex did confirm that he'd seen "All The President's Men," in the John Kennedy interview (approx 1.05.12) when he was talking about "The World's First Ever Monster Truck Front Flip." He said (paraphrasing) he imagined that newsroom style situation when he wrote the song, as if to say, 'you're not going to believe what just happened, a monster truck flipped forward!'

The point of using the phrase is to show that outlandish, bizarre, unfamiliar things are now happening. Combine this with the lyrics, "I'm just a bad girl trying to be good, I've got a laser guiding my love that I cannot adjust"

plus other Easter Eggs in the song (Lizzy in the Summertime, In the Mood for Love) and I think it plainly shows his feelings from the EYCTE tour.

So now we have a link from TWFEMTFF to Four Out Of Five and Body Paint via the mvs.

Totally agree too with Miles cosplaying a scene from the movie:

As to why "All The President's Men," was referenced - apart from there's a good chance that Alex and Miles watched it together - there's the dynamic of the two reporters in the film, (one day I'll do a post of all the male duos that Alex and Miles referenced) plus - have you seen how good looking Redford and Hoffman are??