Intro

Arctic Monkeys is simply one of those names you have heard before, even if you are not heavily into the music industry. They have a signautre sound with bass and heavy drums that carried their most popular songs from their discography. The members are Alex Turner, Jamie Cook, Matt Helders and Nick O’Malley. Each have their own roles in the band like lead singer (Alex Turner), lead guitarist (Jamie Cook), drummer (Matt Helders), and vocals/bass line (Nick O’Malley). The song “505” is a classic song about love and resonating the past times.

Song Review

The song begins with a very slow and soft organ that sets the tone. This intro has become so iconic, you simply just know whats coming within seconds of the song. The song builds slowly and eventually introduces the chorus “I’m going back to 505, If it’s a seven hour flight or a forty-five minute drive…”. With how slow they buildup the song, you can feel an amazing beat drop coming thats worth waiting for.

The song lyrics talk about missing a certain person and willing to travel back to where it started, hence the title “505”, being it can be a street number or apartment number. The lyrics give off a sense that he thinks of them often and really wants them back asap. Alex Turner(lead singer) performs these lyrics in a way where you can feel his pain and how much these emotions affect him. This alone adds another layer to the song that can hook in certain audiences that may also feel a similar way.

Arctic Monkeys produced the beat to match the lyrics by being a soft and slow buildup by adding an instrument every few seconds. As the song progresses, you can feel how it gets more intense by the instruments becoming louder and more powerful. When the chorus comes in for a second time, Alex performs it with a more strength in his vocals, but not with full power. You get this feeling of “okay this is getting serious”. The vocals have this rawness to them that feel like this is based on a true story and this song was made for the person talked about in the lyrics.

As the second chorus completes, the music plays alone for a few seconds building heavily to the climax of the song. The bridge comes in with Alex performing full force “But I crumble completely when you cry”. The drums and guitar combine with the vocals by crashing in together and making this iconic beat drop. This part of the song just feels incredibly strong due to how much impactful and louder all the elements have gotten. After the bridge, we get the chorus one more time but at the very last line, he adds “and a smile”. This is a hint that there is hope or that the girl is waiting for him happily. With how raw the lyrics are and how simple the production is, you can see how much the emotion has played a role in the song to create an iconic piece of work.

Final Thoughts

“505” is a song that is so universal that can resonate with many. After doing research, this article from radiox, states that Arctic Monkeys have claimed “505” to be their “first proper love song”. This comes to show how important this song was for the band and for the album. On the album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, this song is the last song and it has a apparent difference from the rest of the album. You can immediately feel how they took a different approach to creating this song. “505” is an example of why they have a dedicated fanbase for their unique style.

My score: 9.5/10

Let us know your thoughts of the song and the review in the comments.

GENRE: Rock
ARTIST: Arctic Monkeys
Song Link: https://youtu.be/KfEEm4Zx-EU?si=3ADtAqgRGxgVKKVI