Milex - Tumblr Posts
The Last Shadow Puppets
Now and then
Masterlist
Just gonna leave some Milex/TLSP and Jarvis Cocker smut I wrote over here.
*fanning my face*
Things that broke my brain in Gif format part 2: Aviation video (with bonus)
Oooh this resonates so much with me. I'd known Arctic Monkeys forever (they're my age and I grew up on indie rock/Jenny Eliscu's dj sets). I always loved Cornerstone and A Certain Romance. But AM was never my album. And TBHC bounced off me HARD. I never did a deep dive until The Car just stole my heart.
But the older I get, the happier I am to be wrong. This was an album band. They had more in common with Roxy Music than The Black Keys. Alex listened to the same things I loved: Bowie and The Walkmen and Nick Lowe and Richard Hawley and film scores among other things. TBHC isn't meant to be played as one-off tracks on the radio. And it's now one of my favorite albums by any artist. To find something that speaks to your soul, and to find an embarrassment of riches from an active band nearly 20 years into their career? What a fucking gift.
2023 will forever be my AM year: seeing them live that summer, programming a road trip deep dive (my poor husband teases me a bunch but I converted him too), getting into TLSP, and finding this community. I love your lyric theories and headcanons and openness.
Here's hoping we get a TLSP #3 year soon. 🙏
I became a fan of the Arctic Monkeys when I saw a video of ‘I Bet That You Look Good on Dancefloor’ at Glastonbury in 2013 on my Twitter feed like a month ago and since then, my brain simply cannot compute. I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole of obsession and I’m not even made about it.
I just bought a $230 resale ticket for their Aug. 30 Toronto concert and I don’t know what’s going through my mind. I feel like I’m in a fever dream.
Truly, I wish I could have seen them in 2011-2013 era (Suck It and See is one of my favourite albums, fight me if you must) because slicked back hair Alex is enough to bring to my knees and make me weep BUT to see the ‘Body Paint’ outro live will be unreal. I also love that they have been switching up the setlist depending where they go so it’s always a surprise.
I’m so excited. I feel like I’m 16 again.
Yesterday, my silly self spent 2 hours at work trying to structure Alex Turner and Miles Kane's songs into a cohesive Milex conversation playlist.😶🌫️
RPF is only fun when there are facts. The songs are like love letters. And they just show me two bi men who were (are?) in love and can only clearly communicate feels via shimmering liquid melody and poetry.
I dont care about ethics but rpf seems like it requires a lot of research.
Yeah but that's secretly the fun part.
the night that launched 1000 fanfics. 🥰
It's Cleveland Day 24 July. Eight years ago today this all happened....
Every time see this assembled I do a double take. YES THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED YOU ARE NOT HALLUCINATING
Milex Things
[long post : why this gig was incredible !!]
Agora, Cleveland, USA [24-07-2016] Because NOTHING is more ✨MILEX✨ than Cleveland!!! 1-EYCTE
Alex blowing a kiss to Miles from his balcony 😘
2-Used To Be My Girl
Courtship ritual
5- Separate And Ever Deadly
Kitten!Alex and hair pulling kink 😈
7-Pattern
Miles needing to be close to Alex
17-Standing Next To Me
18-The Meeting Place
Everything is PERFECT !!
Alex running to Miles to sing. Alex putting his hand on Miles' hand. And his other hand on the back of his neck. Their erm...you know 😏😏. And Alex running away 🤣
Then Kitten!Alex again 🥰🥰
19-Outside
Me, enjoying the last of Milex Cleveland Day before my spouse gets home like
To me RPF is so damn satisfying because it has a lot of real in it. In this fandom, we have Cleveland videos 🤤 . Those things happened and they were hot and I love you all for celebrating them.
But we can't lose sight of the people at the center of this conversation. I don't want to see them being harassed. They made art that we love and the art is ours forever now. They don't owe us anything.
The best thing about being in music fandom is that it's a really complex type of art we're being given. Do Milex songs talk to each other? I think so. But I also think that the songs live their own life after being released into the world.
Jeff Tweedy of Wilco (who wrote my favorite book about creativity, How to Write One Song) wrote about this beautifully in the song What Light:
And if the whole world's singing your songs
And all you're paintings have been hung
Just remember what was yours is everyone's from now on
And that's not wrong or right
But you can struggle with it all you like
You'll only get uptight
It's a beautifully brave thing, putting bits of yourself in your art and then singing things you'd never say out loud to audiences of thousands.
One of the reasons I love writing/reading fanfic is that it gives me space to process feelings and learn things and then say things I've never been able to say out loud in my real life. But I get to share my creations behind a username.
Fiction is fun
Milex for me isn’t about being sure they are or have been an actual couple. I honestly don’t know if they have ever breached the plutonic/romantic boundary, and it’s none of my business. Would I be delighted to find out that they were in love and happy? Of course I would! That would be beyond wonderful!! But until that happens, I’m here for other things.
I do feel strongly about all this, though please don’t take that as a suggestion that everyone must (or even should) feel the same way. I know and respect that a lot of you feel very differently about this. I love that about this community. And I truly value how fun, funny, passionate, clever, loving, open, and welcoming this community has been over the last year since I’ve been involved. 🥰😘
We are all on tumblr, as far a as I can tell, to explore and share what makes us tick. So, milex, for me is a:
a) feel good hormone hit - their obvious and pure love for each other is so lovely and heart bursting. Their passion for what they do together, and clear appreciation of what they each bring to the team is just so life-affirming.
B) a beautiful rabbit hole to explore music, identity, culture and ideas that are often new to me. Last night I finally watched In The Mood for Love and it was great. I’m so glad that I have been promoted to engage with something I wouldn’t otherwise have.
C) sexy AF… of course Alex & Miles themselves are extremely attractive, but it’s mostly down to the excellent writers here and on Ao3. But I prefer my erotica with established characters that i am familiar with, avoiding time consuming context explainations before getting to explore the sexy parts of their story. So it’s a lovely short cut to explore feelings of desire, sexuality, love and all the rest. perhaps this is delusional, but I honestly feel I have somehow unconsciously separated the real people from the characters in fics. Either way, it’s very difficult to imagine how I’d never meet either of them, so I feel fine about that.
Even if you hate this, I hope we can still be mutuals. If not, I’m fine with that too.
I live for artist playlists. There's something so intimate about listening in. Like traveling back in time to when the boys were making EYCTE. 🥰
Love this. And those two pictures of Miles are among my favorites. Just want to add that Pattern is a song that begins in the car:
"Come down tapping on the glass / As I lock the passenger door"
And the last verse is about trying to recapture the momentum of the abandoned dance:
"Rough start but we all know that dance / Do those old boots remember the steps?"
I've often thought about that In the Mood for Love dance sequence and why it was cut from the film. It's a story reflecting on missed opportunities and I wonder if Wong Kar-wai found it to be too much like lovemaking to fit in his "ballad of what could have been." The dance is better suited to the characters' dreams than their reality. Peak longing. Peak Milex.
"In the mood for love" or "Miracle Aligner"...
People sometimes link Miracle Aligner videos to Dancing In The Street (Blowie/Jagger)... It may well be.. but B/J dance is not sensual - at all... But take "In the Mood for Love". Miles' favourite movie - he even has a poster at home (and a t-shirt) so maybe inspiration comes from there... The dance (gifs you see below) was filmed but was never added to the film. I might be nuts but it almost feels like they are on the movie set of that movie... and... well... the lines between reality and fiction are blurry anyway... Honourable mention - tanktop
Favorite ongoing story update! 🥰🔥
Hey, the new chapter it's here! I hope you like it <3
Adding to this 🐐 lyric analysis, did anyone else ever read the Killing the Joke line
you're my top 100 shows
as a reference to a Netflix queue?
Like Miles and Alex share an account and Miles is haunted by seeing what Alex is watching and missing sitting on the sofa and watching together? Alex may dream of haunting Miles by
the rear view mirror / on a long drive / from the back seat
but Miles sees him as a ghost in the technology they share? What's a more couple thing to do than snuggle up and watch tv?
hey! since i loved so much your last analysis of the ultracheese, would you like to tell us what you think of killing the joke by miles?
hi, thank you (💖) and sorry for the late reply!!!
killing the joke is definitely one of my favourite miles songs. not only because it's so melancholy, but also because (i'm so sorry) my demon milex ass was literally s h o c k e d when i heard That Verse TM for the first time. you know which one. i couldn't believe he actually did that!!!! he was so fucking direct with it and that was iconic behaviour right there. but let's get to the actual analysis before discussing that into more depth.
(as always, this is just a fun little theory and i'm in no way shape or form implying anything i'm about to say is the Truth TM. just having fun with song interpretations)
[TW: mentions of internalised homophobia]
first of all, i'd like to preface this by saying that i think the whole cdg album is:
1) miles' own personal way of coming out as bi without actually having to come out. my boy did not choose the literal bi flag colours for the cover of his album, he did not spend his absolute slut era in florence and mykonos, he did not pull the Gay Silence Eyebrow Raise TM for people to still claim he's straight. my boy didn't need to formally come out to the public because he knew the people who'd get it would get it
2) (almost) entirely dedicated to alex. once again, i'm gonna follow the theory based on them having some kind of falling out after the eycte tour due to their situationship: miles got serious, alex got scared, we all know the drill by now. alex wasn't ready to commit because of his personal issues with his identity + public image, and miles got hurt. badly. cdg is a breakup album - a nasty breakup that left him angry and heartbroken, desperate for answers but still willing to save what was left of it. willing to work on it and mend their broken hearts together. he's angry, yes, but he's also hopeful. he's sad, but he still loves the person who hurt him so bad - because he knows they hurt themselves too, and he can't stand knowing they're both hurting like that. he wants to do something about it, and despite having his moments of melancholia and discouragement, he still believes they can do something to salvage their relationship together.
and yes, officially the album is about his breakup with hannah. still, the math doesn't seem to be mathing that well considering the timeline (his breakup with her - the album getting released. a bit too close). also, i'm not saying hannah gave off strong beard vibes (just like nadya does rn), but i'm also not saying she didn't, you know? and i know miles is very private about his relationships, almost as much as alex is, and i'm not saying there was nothing between him and her... but still, they did give off very strong Bestie Vibes Only. don't get me wrong, i liked her (almost as much as i love nadya who seems like such a fun person to hang out with shddhdhsh but that's off-topic), it's just so difficult for me to believe all those songs are about her. but i'm giving him the benefit of the doubt and only focusing on killing the joke rn - and i have to say, there's absolutely no way this one is about her. like. come on. bffr.
"inhibitions, televisions, clicking through whatever / whether you know that you're mine / lets you know i know better / but i, i want to see you tonight"
he opens the song playing with the same sounds (inhibitions/televisions, whatever/whether, know/know/know) which becomes extra interesting as a device when you focus on the words he uses: the inhibitions he talks about (doubts, fears, insecurities, you name it) could be directly related to the media (televisions), inducing him and the person he's with (or rather the person he has an unclear situationship with) to try and stay off the radar out of fear of being found out (most likely being outed, if we assume the person in question is a man and specifically alex). however, i think it's safe to say that the other person is the most influenced by what others could say in the event of them being spotted together and their romantic relationship being put under the spotlight, so that's why he (the person he's talking to) just goes with the flow of what other people want him to be (in alex's case, going right back into the closet - not that he ever completely left - right after the eycte tour and during the tbhc era to fit the idea of him being straight) and accepts whatever in order not to be the center of attention with some outing scandal, even at the cost of limiting his own identity and his relationship with miles.
on the other hand, miles doesn't seem to be that okay with this self-imposed censorship: being the most self-assured one out of the two of them, he takes on a more dominant role ("lets you know i know better"), reminding alex that no matter if they're public or not, they belong to and with each other; at the same time, his request to see him during the night (although possibly suggestive) also suggests the idea of darkness as secrecy, a feeling of privacy offered only by the cover of night, when they can meet each other without either of them having to worry about being found out (an idea that we also find in miracle aligner, "all of our exchanges are by candlelight", although with a much lighter, more playful tone to it).
however, this line could also be a desperate cry for a meeting, an attempt at seeing each other (after maybe some sort of falling out, which the song seems to suggest) in order to sort things out together. a request that is repeated in the following lines:
"'cause the clocks count down and we're in for bad weather / it'd be nice to see you, to see you nice / but i, i want to see you tonight"
despite the feeling of running out of time ("clocks count down") and the "bad weather" they went/are going/might go through in the future, he asks to see him, he wants to see him.
[a desperate need and an attempt at extending an olive branch no matter the issues they're going through is also present in songs such as wrong side of life (my absolute beloved):
"oh, baby i just wanna tell you one thing / i'll tell it, just like it is / i don't want, i don't want no more fighting / no more hurting baby / i just want you / oh, i just need you / no more fighting, no more running, no more hands in the air / oh, no more no more / i'm just here for you / i'm your man"
are you guys hearing this. are you actually hearing this because i don't think you are. he put his whole fucking soul in this song i'm a fucking mess]
going back to killing the joke, i'll get to the chorus in a minute, but let's analyse the second verse and the bridge first:
"interstellar, dressed in leather, drinking bitter boy"
now listen. this is The Verse TM. this verse alone should be enough to convince you the whole song is about alex. even the fucking genius people acknowledge the reference to him in their notes. interstellar obviously being a reference to tbhc (which miles definitely heard before the release date + alex probably shared his ideas with him, confiding in him and telling him about this project during the very early stages of it, when tbhc was nothing but a concept in his mind), dressed in leather (duh), drinking bitter boy (my guy does enjoy a good drink). now my question is: first of all, why would you, as a boy, refer to another boy in a deeply romantic-breakup-coded song. second of all, why would you make sure the boy in question is immediately recognizable as your 100% completely platonic no homo best friend? why are you doing this. it makes absolutely zero fucking sense unless, like alex would say, "maybe [they] shouldn't ever have called that thing friendly at all".
miles made it so it would be literally impossible for anyone to not immediately think of alex when listening to this song, even non-milex shippers. he made it so everyone would immediately know who he was talking about upon hearing this line, without having to explicitly say the person's name - and he did it using such simple yet well-thought expressions, creating such a straightforward yet endearingly beautiful image of alex in the listener's eyes that, again, it's impossible not to immediately think of him. you can almost see him through miles' eyes - and it's just so lovely that he put so much thought of him into this song that it just oozes alex from everywhere you look. it's just such a beautiful and heartbreakingly romantic love letter to him and i just 💔💔💔💔
"you know the plan, but you never knew the ploy / but i, i live a lonely life / since you've been gone, left the TV on / let the milk go sour, let the bills pile up / but i, i know I'm a funny guy"
the plan and ploy part could be a reference to alex's perfectionism and/or desire to have everything under control - maybe even in his private life and in this case in relation to what him and miles have, which comes clashing with his self-imposed censorship and his need to keep up with appearances and with his public image. figuring out his identity, being with miles and eventually coming out would destroy his straight persona, hence why he stays in the closet and refuses that side of himself altogether (internalised homophobia). hiding in denial works in theory (plan), but his way of putting it into action (ploy) ends up hurting them both: they can't be together, alex wallows in self-pity and repression and is slowly eaten away by regret as we saw during the tbhc era; and miles lives "a lonely life", unable to move on from him ("let the TV on" etc., the idea of not caring about anything else but him "since [he's] been gone", confirming there was indeed a falling out). his inability to move on because he stilll loves him and still believes in them and in the possibility of their relationship being salvageable is, again, a recurrent theme in the album.
however, though the plan could very well refer to what we said above, the ploy could also be a way of referring to their relationship in and of itself - in other words, alex's plan to hide his true self works right up to the moment when miles comes into the scene: what they have is (had? was?) so strong and visceral, so joyful and exhilarating and blatant (to them as well as to the outsiders, as the eycte tour proved) that it is (was?) impossible to ignore it, let alone to deny it, as miles seems to hint at later:
"swear i saw you smile / you try to hide it well"
again, alex might try his best to deny what they have, to hide his true feelings in fear of what others might think - and who knows, maybe he would've succeeded at it if miles didn't know him so well. he knows him too much, too intimately to be fooled by his façade of aloofness, like others might be. he could never fall for it, not when he knows alex like his own reflection.
"3:15 on the wrong side columbia street"
this one's a bit tricky for me. a while ago i read a post where the op did an amazing job at explaining what this particular line could mean, but i can't find it anymore and my memory apparently sucks lmao but still, every time i listen to this song i can't help but get stuck trying to come up with an interpretation of this line, usually to no avail. the meaning i usually stick to is that - just like in many other am/mk/tlsp songs that miles/alex potentially dedicated to each other - it's most likely something that only they would understand. some sort of coded message that would make it immediately clear, in this case to alex, upon listening to the song for the first time, that it's about him (as if he needed any more confirmation lmao). could be an inside joke, could be an obscure reference (to a time and a place? some sort of meeting place? a specific event?)
but what usually catches my attention in this line is the "wrong side" bit, which seems to mirror the very title of wrong side of life (can you tell i'm obsessed with this song?). this duality between right and wrong, and especially the assumed existing contrast between a right side to life (the "right" way to live) and a bad one (the "wrong" one), always makes me think of - once again - some sort of internalised homophobia, when one might be influenced to think there is a right/good lifestyle (supposedly heterosexual) as opposed to a wrong/bad one (supposedly homosexual). this line gives off very memory-like vibes, so assuming it's a reference to a moment they spent together in the past, the idea of them being on the "wrong side" could be hinting at a queer relationship seen through the lens of someone struggling to accept it for themselves (most likely alex, but who knows, maybe miles used to struggle with it in the past. he's definitely embracing his identity in cdg, though, so again - probably something alex is more prone to)
[this whole concept is applicable to wrong side of life as well - and this reinforces my theory of miles using the term 'wrong' to reference something that is thought by someone else, not by him: by appropriating it, he gives it a positive meaning, hence why the "wrong" side of life he talks about is actually the good and right one for him/them - the relationship he believes in, fights for and wants so hard to salvage.]
finally, let's have a look at the chorus:
"'cause you're my top, you're my top / you're my top one-hundred shows / why do i always have to go killing the joke?"
as we've all thought at least once (don't try to deny it), the way he plays with the repetition of "you're my top" before getting to "one-hundred shows" could be seen as rather suggestive - which tbh i find kinda funny because dude you didn't have to be so blunt about it sfhsfgsg (also who would have thought. huh). however, i do think that him referring to alex as his "top one-hundred shows" could be a reference to the eycte tour (which, and i counted, was composed of 77 shows), easily some of the best shows they ever played in their whole careers because of all the fun they had with every performance and with each other. this line would be a way of saying that the shows he played with him were in his top one-hundred because - and that's the very reason that makes them so special - they were playing them together. because of how important what they had was, and because they both knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, having so deep of a connection with another person - being each other's partners in crime and soulmates, platonic or not.
[quick digression: the short 2008 taotu tour was apparently made of 30 shows, which added to the eycte ones make for 107 shows - which ofc isn't a round 100 but it's still interesting to see how close the number is, and how easily that could be interpreted as almost all the concerts he played with him as tlsp being among his favourites) (obviously not considering the countless am/mk gigs they've guest-starred at over the years) (you get what i mean. just fun to notice this detail)]
being tied to the title, the last line of the chorus gives us an explanation to the title itself: miles reflects on how and why, despite being "a funny guy" as he mentions earlier, he always goes "killing the joke" for the two of them. i've always interpreted this as both a contrast and a confirmation to the way he always seemed to be (especially during the eycte era) the one going all in when it came to their perpetual game of chicken. alex being a tease and miles picking up the challenge and amplifying it tenfold, giving their little game his 100% until alex eventually got flustered and chickened out (as we all know, a prime example of this is the coachella kiss, but there are so many other instances of the rituals being so mindblowingly intricate.......)
by bringing the game "too far", refusing to back out at the very last moment like alex, miles keeps killing the joke (their playful, innocuous no homo game, instead actually going for it), although we could say that at the same time it's alex who's killing it by backing out.
on the other hand, we could also speculate that miles' way of killing the joke eventually came after: we could easily assume that the supposed falling out they had after 2016 and especially in 2018 was due to their situationship in general, and more specifically to miles getting serious about what they had, maybe wanting to be official (hence killing the joke, their little game, for something more serious) and, once again, alex chickening out (him killing the joke too by getting so far back in the closet it was painful to watch).
in a way, they both killed the joke. miles by wanting to commit, alex by being scared of it. miles killed their little game, alex a relationship that never saw the light of day.
still, no matter how utterly sad, angry and heartbroken miles was at that time, what prevails in cdg isn't pessimism. if anything, the desperation and intensity of his emotions make him more eager to fight for what he believes in. because he still wants alex, and he knows the feeling is mutual, and he's willing to fight for them, no matter how long it takes. cdg is not only his way of wordlessly coming out (which is unrelated to whoever his partner might be), but also such a beautiful and heartwrenching love letter to alex specifically. a way of telling him that no matter what they went through, no matter how badly alex broke both their hearts - he'll wait for him no matter what. he'll wait for him to be ready, and once he is he'll welcome him back with open arms, and the promise still stands to this day. after all, after all those years, in change the show he still sings, "i'll be right here, i'll see ya when i see ya" ❤️
The Milex Music Extended Universe
I'm working on a playlist of songs that Miles and Alex have referenced. A big picture version of "What I'm listening to," across eras and genres.
In: the original versions of songs that Miles, Alex, TLSP have covered, songs they mention in interviews, things Miles shares on Instagram, etc
Out: actual songs by Miles, Alex, or TLSP
Please share your picks, and if you want to be a playlist collaborator, let me know!
This kept me up too...so much that I wrote a fic about it https://archiveofourown.org/works/56866471
Does this involve Miles and Alex arguing and having sex? It may. 🥹
3am thoughts…
We never did find out why Miles went to Nashville in June 🤔
