In August of 2007 he and The Rascals' member Miles Kane started recording an album for their new band The Last Shadow Puppets. It was released in the UK April 23 2008.
In 2010, Turner wrote six tracks for Submarine, the debut feature film of Richard Ayoade, director of various Arctic Monkeys music videos.
08 Stuck On The Puzzle
Alex Turner Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Who's gonna sit and sing to you
About stars, girl
But last night I looked up into
The dark half of the blue
And they'd gone backwards
Must have pissed them off
Forcing them to get an early night
I have been searching from
The bottom to the top
For such a sight
As the one I caught when I saw your
Fingers dimming in the lights
Like you're used to being told that you're trouble
And I spent all night
Stuck on the puzzle
Nobody I asked
Knew how he came to be the one
To whom you surrendered
Any man who wasn't led away
Into the other room
Stood pretending
That something in your magnetism
Hadn't just made him drop
Whoever's hand it was that he was holding
I have been searching from
The bottom to the top
For such a sight
As the one I caught when I saw your
Fingers dimming in the lights
Like you're used to being told that you're trouble
And I spent all night
Stuck on the puzzle
I tried to swim to the side
But my feet got caught in the middle
And I thought I'd seen the light
But oh no
I was just stuck on the puzzle
Stuck on the puzzle
In "Stuck on the puzzle," Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) reflects on the difficulties of decoding the mystery of a woman's allure. He acknowledges that his usual playboy tactics of singing about stars and lovey-dovey lyrics won't work on this particular woman. Instead, he is drawn to her by her magnetism, which seems to have even put the stars to bed early. Turner articulates the physicality of their encounter in the second verse, where he describes being "stuck on the puzzle" of her fingers fading into the light. Other men around her seem to be similarly perplexed, but Turner remains determined to find that "sight" that captivates him.
However, the song does not conclude with a happy ending. Turner tries to get away from this puzzling situation but finds himself trapped "in the middle" with "caught feet." The light he thought he had found was just an illusion, and he remains stuck on the puzzle. The song is a poignant reflection on the universal human experience of being drawn to someone who seems to be out of reach, and the hopeless feeling that can come with that.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm not the kind of fool
I refuse to be the type to sing you cheesy, romantic songs about stars
Who's gonna sit and sing to you
I won't serenade you with clichés
About stars, girl
I won't talk about celestial bodies in a sickening cheesy way
But last night I looked up into
However, I did gaze up at the sky last night and learned something
The dark half of the blue
I looked at the darkest part of the blue sky and found something surprising
And they'd gone backwards
The stars had moved in reverse from their usual pattern
Something in your magnetism
There's something in your nature
Must have pissed them off
That upset the stars for some reason
Forcing them to get an early night
And caused them to disappear early
I have been searching from
I have been looking everywhere
The bottom to the top
From the bottom to the top of my heart's desires
For such a sight
I searched to see something that would move me
As the one I caught when I saw your
But the only thing that got me was the sight of your
Fingers dimming in the lights
Fingers that looked like they've been scolded by the light's brightness
Like you're used to being told that you're trouble
Fingers so misbehaved because they're always labeled as problematic
And I spent all night
And I wasted the whole night
Stuck on the puzzle
Trying to understand the riddle that is you
Nobody I asked
No one I inquired of
Knew how he came to be the one
Understood how he won your heart
To whom you surrendered
To whom you've given yourself to
Any man who wasn't led away
Every man who wasn't taken away
Into the other room
To another part of the place
Stood pretending
Stood pretending as if everything's fine
That something in your magnetism
That whatever it is in your nature
Hadn't just made him drop
Didn't cause him to stumble or fall under your spell
Whoever's hand it was that he was holding
The person he was holding hands with
I have been searching from
I have been hunting for
The bottom to the top
From the disadvantaged to the advantaged
For such a sight
For something to catch my eye
As the one I caught when I saw your
Like the sight of your
Fingers dimming in the lights
Fingers that cowered under the brightness of light
Like you're used to being told that you're trouble
Fingers that are constantly labeled as problematic
And I spent all night
And I wasted my whole night
Stuck on the puzzle
Trying to understand the mystery that is you
I tried to swim to the side
I made an effort to move on
But my feet got caught in the middle
But I got stuck in the middle
And I thought I'd seen the light
I thought I finally found the answer
But oh no
But to my disappointment
I was just stuck on the puzzle
I was just stuck trying to unravel who you are
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Alex Turner
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind