Do I Wanna Know?

Formed in 2002, the band have won seven Brit awards, a Mercury Prize, and have been nominated for three Grammy Awards. With old school tunes such as “I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor”, “Mardy Bum”, “Fluorescent Adolescent” and more, it’s more than appropriate to say that everyone has heard an Arctic Monkeys song at least once. They’ve proven their talent time and time again with every album they release echoing their transition as a band as they continue to grow.

“Do I Wanna Know?” (D.I.W.K) is the first track off the critically acclaimed album “AM”, released in 2013. With Turner’s husky, rough yet sweet voice, accompanied by simple electric guitar, electronic drums and bass guitar, D.I.W.K is a honest modern love ballad capturing a confusing, complex and perhaps unrequited romantic relationship. “Do you ever get the fear that you can’t shift the type/That sticks around like summat in your teeth?”. “Summat” is north English slang for “something”, and Turner is comparing the worry of feeling lust or love for someone that you just can’t get rid of and just sticks around – as if there’s a bit of food in your teeth that you just can’t get out. Turner carries on to sing about how he’s found a song where the tune reminds him of his lover and he plays on repeat until he falls asleep. The chorus informs the listener that Turner is crawling back to his lover and asks if they ever think of calling when they’ve been drinking, because he always does. “Maybe I’m too busy bein’ yours, to fall for somebody new, now that I’ve thought it through”. The song gives off a very relatable feeling of pining for someone who you makes you unsure of if they want you too. Turner continues you to spend the rest of the song attempting to dig out feelings from his lover: “I don’t know if you feel the same as I do”, and “Baby, we both know that the nights were mainly made for saying things that you can’t say, tomorrow day”. The song is one of the most raw and to the point love songs about potentially unrequited love, and encapsulates the mixture of emotions that an individual can experience when someone they are romantically involved with isn’t being clear with their feelings – it’s easy to see why this song was so successful and so well received.

In an interview with Q magazine, frontman of the band Alex Turner said that the idea they had for D.I.W.K was “where you take the compositional perspective of an R&B producer and apply that to a four-piece rock’n’roll band”. The song has been covered by artists such as Illy, CHVRCHES in a “triple j Like A Version” and Dua Lipa in the BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge.

The music video has accumulated over 700 million views, and 3.7 million likes on YouTube. Directed by David Wilson, it features the same artistic art style as on the cover of the album. With a black background and white continuous line drawings, the music video depicts lips singing, women playing drums, and doesn’t necessarily follow a storyline, but rather a style and rhythm that matches the song.

Release Date: 18th June 2013

Song Length: 4:33

Songwriter/s: Alex Turner, Jamie Cook, Matt Helders, Nick O’Malley

Album: AM (2013)

Genre: Indie Rock

Record Label: Domino

Music Video Release Date: 18th June 2013

Music Video Director: David Wilson

Chart Rankings: #11 in UK Singles Chart, and was the first Arctic Monkeys song to have entered the “Billboard Top 100” chart in the US, peaking at #70 in March 2014.