“Black Treacle” by Arctic Monkeys

Based on Alex Turner’s explanation of this piece, “Black Treacle” is not intended to make any sense. Rather, his goal was to create a song that people could relate to more in an external sense. Or let’s say that this track is provided solely for your listening pleasure, not to relay any type of message or discernable narrative. The words have been added more for an euphonious effect, if you will. And in that regard Turner even gave a shoutout to David Bowie, a singer who’s known for not giving AF when it came to writing lyrics with actual meaning.

So what we are met with here is Alex putting together a story just for fun, in a manner of speaking. Of course imagination is an important part of art, and being that there is actually an identifiable addressee some listeners will get what they will out of “Black Treacle”. But this isn’t a case whereas what’s going down is debatable, as Turner intentionally imbued the track with open-ended lyrics. And also just to note, a “treacle” is actually a type of syrup.

This is a track that the Arctic Monkeys put out on 23 January 2012, via Domino Records, being a single from their fourth studio album, “Suck It and See”. 

The song was written by the band’s lead singer, Alex Turner. And since 2006 and still as of the writing of this post, he has been backed by guitarist Jamie Cook, bassist Nick O’Malley and drummer Matt Helders.

The producer of “Black Treacle” is James Ford, a regular Arctic Monkeys’ collaborator.

This song’s music video was directed by Focus Creeps, i.e. Ben Chappell and Aaron Brown, who also have an extended history working with Arctic Monkeys.