Has anyone else noticed that there is a lot of carnival imagery in Humbug? Both this song and 'The Jeweller's Hands' have a lot of this ominous setting around them with dark and simply awkward metaphors, which is one of the reasons I love the Arctic Monkeys and this new album even more than their old stuff. I also like the fact that these metaphors and similes leave it down to the listener to decipher what is meant. I suppose that's what makes Humbug a HELL of a 'grower'. Once you've heard each song a few times you will just be hooked.
I believe that the 'pretty visitors' don't really symbolise anything and that it is more in the literal sense of the superficial hipsters who arrive at their concerts just because of the band's hype in the beginning. They then wanted more and more so their flailing arms became the 'shadow of a snake pit'. This is seen again in 'The Jeweller's Hands' with the lines "You thought you'd never get obsessed;
You thought the wolves would be impressed".
These are just my views on the song but the album as a whole seems to echo this.
Has anyone else noticed that there is a lot of carnival imagery in Humbug? Both this song and 'The Jeweller's Hands' have a lot of this ominous setting around them with dark and simply awkward metaphors, which is one of the reasons I love the Arctic Monkeys and this new album even more than their old stuff. I also like the fact that these metaphors and similes leave it down to the listener to decipher what is meant. I suppose that's what makes Humbug a HELL of a 'grower'. Once you've heard each song a few times you will just be hooked.
I believe that the 'pretty visitors' don't really symbolise anything and that it is more in the literal sense of the superficial hipsters who arrive at their concerts just because of the band's hype in the beginning. They then wanted more and more so their flailing arms became the 'shadow of a snake pit'. This is seen again in 'The Jeweller's Hands' with the lines "You thought you'd never get obsessed; You thought the wolves would be impressed".
These are just my views on the song but the album as a whole seems to echo this.