Arctic Monkeys returned yesterday with “Body Paint,” the second single off their forthcoming seventh studio album, The Car. The slow-building betrayal ballad feels thematically similar to last month’s “There’d Better Be a Mirror Ball,” and like that earlier single, it’s faring very well on the Genius Top Songs chart. It currently sits at No. 1.
Written by Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner and produced by frequent collaborator James Ford, “Body Paint” begins as a minimalist piano ballad. Turner is addressing a dishonest, unfaithful partner who’s not fooling him for a second. In calling out her lies—and perhaps attacking her vanity—Turner references “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying,” a 1964 hit for the British group Gerry and the Pacemakers. That song, incidentally, is about how you should do your weeping at night—not during the day, when you might venture out into the world and find a new lover.
For a master of deception and subterfuge
You’ve made yourself quite the bed to lie in
Do your time traveling through the tanning booth
So you don’t let the sun catch you crying
A string section enters the mix in the second verse, as Turner feels the physical and mental effects of his partner’s infidelity.
My teeth are beating and my knees are weak
It’s as if there’s something up with the wiring
The strings get all stabby and abrupt in the bridge, where Turner uses the analogy of a model covered in body paint to illustrate the lingering physical evidence of his partner’s tryst.
Straight from the cover shoot
Still a trace of body paint
On your legs and on your arms and on your face
Not that Turner is being completely honest himself. Maybe he’s pretending he’s cool with the whole thing in order to wring out a great song.
And I’m keeping on my costume
And calling it a writing tool
And if you’re thinking of me
I’m probably thinking of you
Down the stretch, heavy guitars join the strings and suggest some degree of mounting anguish as Turner repeats the lines about the body paint. The song arrived alongside a retro-leaning music video filled with vintage camera equipment and telling images, such as someone lighting a cigarette with a burning tarot card that reads “The Fool.”
Expect more string-laden heartache when The Car drops on October 21. In the meantime, you can read all the lyrics to “Body Paint” on Genius now.
