The Hellcat Spangles Shalalala Lyrics

Lyric discussion by m110378 

Cover art for The Hellcat Spangles Shalalala lyrics by Arctic Monkeys

So this guy is in a fight with his girl and the girl in the heat of the battle reveals something that she has been keeping away in her back pocket for when everything hit the fan. Whatever the "revleation" is the girl knows that when she puts that information out there that she knows exactly what reaction she is going to recieve from the guy and that she well revel in the feeling she gets knowing the guy suffers. And just as she expect when she reveals the informatino, the guys heartbeat and enrgy is through the roof (dozen summersaults and superCHARGED) Alex Turner suggest that the guy is so heated, so angry, so riled up by this girls revelation that in complete darkness the guy would be glowing.

So after the argument the guy gets back to his house. The whole time he was arguing with his girl he just wanted to be at home alone where he felt comfortable and nothing could go wrong. But the home can be a lonely place, expecially when you recieve "a red hot revelation" from a girl that you love. This home which normally appears to be some comforting sudenly becomes a place of entrapment. His home becomes a place where he can not escape the thoughts that the girl implanted in his mind.

"I took that batteris out my mysticiysm and put them in my thinking cap" So basically this guy is at home and it is tortuting him. He has gotten to the point where his mind has gotten the best of him and is running wild with the worst thoughs. At this point the guy has turned what ever the girl told him into something that is unimaginably worse. The thoughts he thinks are tearing him up, but he has no real grounds or justification to be thinking such horrbile things based off the one thing the girl told him (mysticism: groundless speculation). Everyone knows that batteris are something that are neccesary in some devices to make them opperate. In otherwords batteris produce charge. It just so happens that all this "charge" was produced from this girl's revelation (remember: "leaves you superCHARGED") It is this "supercharge" or "battery" that is operating his mind to create this mysticism (all the horible thoughts that his mind is creating based on over exagerations of what the girl initally told him.) So he decides to remove the source of this torture and try to use all that superCHARGE to operate his mind (thinkiing cap) to figure out what he can do to solve this situation.

So while this guy is at home going absolutely insane, his girl is off in a compely different state. The girl is infact so happy that she is torturing her man. Althoug she is happy that she has caused such emotinal stress on her boyfriend, she is very secrative about her hellcatish ways. She prides herself in fact that she can wrap guys around her finger. This pride is evident when Turner mentions "shes got telescopic hallelujah hanging up on the wall". The "hallelujah" represents something a long the line "Wow! I am so awesome because I am tortring this guy." As for the "telescopic" part, this means that its personal. Meaning that she feels that self satisfaction and that she only does it for herself for pure enjoyment. Her behaivor and enjoyment from that behaivor is only know to her.

So finally the two return to eachother face to face. "Hellcat Spangled Cavern" represents that environment they guy feels when he returen to his girl or maybe just the general state of his mind at this point or possibly even the girls home. Anyways, this guy can not make a decison about this girl and he is just distraught. His decison what he wants to do with her goes back in forth in his mind. The girl is talking to him and he is just sitting there thinking about what to do. The guy is acting very distant from his girlfriend, but not because he is angry. The guy thinks that by being distant "looks like fun" because it might cause his girl some pain if her man is ignoring her. The guy has turned all that supercharged energy that was destrying his mind from the chick's revelation into energy to charge his thinking cap and finally play the game the girl was playing with him the whole time.

But still this whole time while he is being distant the girl sits there and pays no attention to it, maybe does not even notice it. When she is talking to the guy his mind is split: Is the stuff she saying to me geniuine or is it just the same stuff she always says to get her way? Then he slowly remebers what he is dealing with: a hellcat.

So the final question: What is he waiting for? How is he gonna act? Is he gonna try to play her game and act distant and torture her a little, or is he gonna fall right back into her hellcatish ways?

So he does what most guys do: Fuck it and buys more time because he is not ready to be with or without his girl yet.