‘Love Is A Laserquest’: The song that epitomises time reflections in Arctic Monkeys’ evolution

Posted On March 30, 2025March 30, 2025

Time, to a band like Arctic Monkeys, is neither a blessing nor a curse. In fact, it’s more a conceptual precursor to whatever passion or rage people want to express about how much they have changed, for better or worse. Time, to a band like Arctic Monkeys, means growing up, shedding the skin of what once made you adolescent, and having to reckon with lifelong criticism about diminishing your roots as a result.

Time, for the rest of us, follows a similar pattern, but when it comes to art, it’s easier to see progression as mere happenstance rather than a deliberate musical evolution. This band, in particular, has faced passionate criticism since day one—criticism that only intensified over the years as the four members grew up and sought to reflect that growth in their music.

However, while it’s easy to trace these lines of artistic development from the youthful bellows of Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not to the more creatively refined The Car, one diamond-sharp gem in the middle seems to beckon such intricate claims of time passing through a lens of downbeat melancholy: ‘Love Is A Laserquest’. Tucked away in the band’s fourth record, Suck It And See, this song looks at the one thing we all mourn and celebrate at different junctures in our lives: moving past who we once were.

In adulthood, time seems to disappear—fleeting in the effervescence of moonlight and hidden in the sparkling glimmers of memories lived and lost. In the broader context of Arctic Monkeys’ career, this idea is central to why people either love or loathe them, tied to the belief that when a band starts off strong, they should stick to what they know. But we all know full well that Arctic Monkeys have never done that—and never will.

“Do you still feel younger than you thought you would by now? Or darling, have you started feeling old yet?” A raspy Alex Turner sings in the opening lines of ‘Love Is A Laserquest’. Throughout the song, we feel these heady pushes towards longing and despair of knowing who you once were but having long lost sight of what that person felt like, what they smelled like, even what they looked like.

In these dreamscapes, Turner reflects on how love intertwines with the passage of time, wondering if the lover he longs for has come to see it differently since their youth. “Do you still think love is a Laserquest?” he asks. “Or do you take it all more seriously?” He then distils the entire thought process in one hard-hitting deliberation: “I’ve tried to ask you this in some daydreams that I’ve had / But you’re always busy being make-believe.”

For many fans who have been turned off by Arctic Monkeys’ sonic direction over the years, this flirt with what’s real and what’s not weirdly hits home, and when it concerns broader, more universal, albeit infinitely complex notions like love and loss of time, it feels especially poignant. ‘Love Is A Laserquest’ is rarely placed among other stars in the band’s discography, and yet it seems to hold all the secrets to their perceived transgression.

Turner has always been a prized lyricist, but in this song, he sets his sights on wording those unattainable itches that desire to be scratched, all while unknowingly commenting on the broader scope of expectation and external pressures. “Do you look into the mirror to remind yourself you’re there?” he continues, “Or have somebody’s goodnight kisses got that covered?” It’s a romantic notion without the foundational elements of romance, much like how nostalgia feels—empty but tugging at something unreachable.

That, among many other reasons, is why ‘Love Is A Laserquest’ became Arctic Monkeys’ most underappreciated composition. Loosely inspired by Turner’s brief fixation with country music tropes, the song tackles something starkly basic, like pining away, and poetically navigates these changes with a fatigued detachment (“When I’m hanging on by the rings around my eyes”) without losing grip of what it’s all about.

And while we continue to pull apart the overarching reasons why Arctic Monkeys are or aren’t what they used to be, that’s precisely what makes them so endearing. After all, change is inevitable, and time is often the root of our problems. But as long as we refuse to let go, we’ll always find ourselves wondering what’s happening just beyond the edges of our perception.

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