"Cornerstone" is a song by the English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys, released as the second single from their third album Humbug. It was released on 16 November 2009. Like the previous single "Crying Lightning", the vinyl was made available in Oxfam shops.[2]Alex Turner told Uncut magazine that he wrote this song, "one morning, quite quickly." He added: "There's something to be said for writing in the morning. At other points in the day you're a bit more defensive. I saw it as a challenge to write something in a major key, but that wasn't cheesy."[3] It was originally written in the key of A major. In October 2013, it was sampled by the rapper Dom Kennedy for the song "Pleeze" on his album Get Home Safely.
Meaning and lyrics synopsis
The track is said to be about a boy who goes around to different social pubs and bars in the hopes of finding a woman who looks like his ex-girlfriend to re-live or subsequently continue their relationship; going as far as to ask the question:
In each one of the verses, Alex Turner references different made-up clubs (the Battleship, Rusty Hook, Parrot's Beak; most likely to be hypothetically found in the England area) and how he finds look alikes to this lover visiting them, but once he asks if they would be okay with being a replacement to the girlfriend, they reject him along with his proposal.[5]
He then comes across his old lover's sister in the Cornerstone (a real counselling centre found Sheffield[6]) during the last verse, where he successfully "restarts" his past romance.[7]
(I saw your sister in the Cornerstone.../I thought she might understand that she was close/Well, you couldn't get much closer/She said "I'm really not supposed to, but yes/You can call me anything you want")
Music video
The music video for the single debuted on Channel 4 in the UK on 15 October 2009.
The music video, directed by Richard Ayoade, who worked on the videos of "Fluorescent Adolescent", "Crying Lightning" and their At the Apollo DVD, shows frontman Alex Turner singing the song alone in a white room holding a cassette recorder and microphone during the whole video.[8] The other members of the band (Jamie Cook, Matt Helders and Nick O'Malley) are not present in the video.
Reception
"Cornerstone" is widely considered to be one of the band's best songs. In 2023, Rolling Stone and Paste ranked the song number two and number one, respectively, on their lists of the greatest Arctic Monkeys songs.[9][10]
Being released as an EP in Oxfam shops, the single charted at number 94 in the UK charts and charted at number seven on the UK indie charts. It also debuted at number seven on the SoundScan singles charts for sales in Canada. One of the single's B-sides, "Sketchead", peaked at number 80 on the UK Singles Chart, fourteen places higher than "Cornerstone"'s peak position.[11]
