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"Fluorescent Adolescent" is a song by English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys. It was released as the second single from their second studio album Favourite Worst Nightmare. It was released on 9 July 2007 in the United Kingdom. The song was written by Alex Turner and Johanna Bennett, Turner's girlfriend at the time, in a hotel room prior to the recording of Favourite Worst Nightmare.
"Fluorescent Adolescent" was described as a ballad about sex, ageing and nostalgia for youth. It describes a woman who dreams of her youth while her current sex life is unsatisfying and boring. The song peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart and was the 83rd best-selling song of 2007 in the United Kingdom. "Fluorescent Adolescent" is one of the band's most popular songs, and is frequently performed as a closer to their concerts. Kate Nash performed a cover of the song on 5 October 2007. It appears on Radio 1's Live Lounge – Volume 3.
Fluorescent Adolescent was written by Alex Turner with his ex-girlfriend, Johanna Bennett, during a Mediterranean holiday, when they were reminiscing about characters they knew at school. The video for the song was based on John Cooper Clarke's poem "Out of Control Fairground", which was written specifically for the release of the single. He recalls in The Times magazine July 28, 2007: "It started off as a joke. Then it was like, 'Here's another verse." We were having a laugh. Some of the lines were hers. I couldn't have not credited her. It's just right, really."
The song's music video was directed by comedian Richard Ayoade, who is best known for playing the computer geek Maurice Moss in the UK Channel 4 sitcom The IT Crowd. Ayoade also helmed the band's Live At The Apollo DVD. The music video is based on a fight between a group of clowns and a group of non-clowns at an abandoned warehouse. The presumed leaders of the two groups have a flashback showing that they were friends when they were young children. During the flashback, photos of the band as young children are shown. Throughout the fight, each group leader attempts to kill the other. As the music video climaxes, the non-clown leader tries to run over the clown leader. However, the clown leader notices that the non-clown leader's car (with the non-clown leader inside) has been leaking fuel and drops his cigarette lighter. The car quickly catches fire and the clown leader looks on as his former friend burns and the music video ends.
The video was loosely inspired by the poem "Out of Control Fairground" by John Cooper Clarke. Turner says he is a fan of Clarke and describes him as a lyrical inspiration; Arctic Monkeys would later adapt Clarke's poem "I Wanna Be Yours" into a song on their 2013 album AM. The poem is also printed inside the CD release of "Fluorescent Adolescent." The lines such as "out of control fairground" and "homicidal clowns" support this. The video was preceded by a warning of violent images. In an MTV interview, Turner stated that the music video "is the best thing we've ever done" while Jamie Cook hailed it as "…probably one of the best videos in the last, like, 10 years".
During a live performance of the song on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, the band played the song dressed as clowns, with Alex Turner dressing in the same make-up and clothing as the main clown in the video.
During a performance of the song on the Late Show with David Letterman, Letterman introduced the band by joking that his vinyl copy of "Favourite Worst Nightmare" had been stolen due to its popularity.
On downloads alone, "Fluorescent Adolescent" charted in the UK Singles Chart at number 55 for the week commencing 25 June 2007. The song charted at number five upon release of the single on CD for the week commencing 16 July 2007. On 27 June 2007, "Fluorescent Adolescent" began receiving significant BBC Radio 1 airplay as the first song on "The A-List" Playlist. The song's three B-sides—"Plastic Tramp", "The Bakery" and "Too Much to Ask"—appeared on the UK Singles Chart the week of the single's physical release at number 153, number 161 and number 178, respectively.
In an interview with The Guardian, Johanna Bennett said about the song:
"We were on holiday and had cut ourselves off from everything. We were in a really quiet hotel and didn't watch TV or listen to that much music. So as not to drive each other mad we started messing around with these words like a game, singing them to each other. It's great to think that it came from something we did for fun on holiday. It'll always be a good memory for Alex and I. He doesn't usually write lyrics with other people, though I think he enjoyed it."
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