Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent

Following the frenetic Brianstorm, Arctic Monkeys slip down a gear with Fluorescent Adolescent, a song that wouldn't sound out of place in some idealised 1950s American high-school dance – were it not for Alex Turner's gnarled references to "slags", "fishnets", and "little books of sex tips" that is. With its ABC-elementary call-and-answer guitar riff it resembles Mardy Bum, while lyrically it's more like When the Sun Goes Down with Turner again the detached observer of the fallout from a throwaway relationship. The contrast between innocent guitar pop and the story of a cheap sexual fling is effective, but it doesn't match the energy or exuberance of its predecessor. [Nick Mitchell]