What is a mirrorball? Meaning of Arctic Monkeys' new single
The Arctic Monkeys have just released their first new song in four years, There’d Better Be A Mirrorball.
They shared a clip of the track on Instagram on Tuesday (August 30) and wrote: “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball’, the new single from Arctic Monkeys, out now.”
This comes days after the band announced their seventh studio album The Car which will be released on October 21 and performed at Reading and Leeds Festival, their first UK performance in years.
Fans are ecstatic that the Sheffield band are returning almost a decade after releasing their hit album AM, but many are confused about the new song’s title.
What is a mirrorball?
A mirrorball is something you’re probably really familiar with, but you would call it by a different name – a disco ball!
You know those silver balls covered in loads of tiny mirrors that you hang from the ceiling, that’s actually called a mirrorball.
They’re usually hung at bars, ballrooms and parties as they reflect across the ceiling and illuminate the room with cool light patterns.
There’s Better Be A Mirrorball meaning
The new Arctic Monkeys track is a seductive ballad that has the same hypnotising tone as all the band’s previous albums.
Alex Turner sings about a woman walking him to the car, which many fans think is an ode to the name of their upcoming album, and wanting a mirrorball to be there.
In the track, he repeatedly talks about hoping there will be a mirrorball in the car, although the significance of the disco ball isn’t quite clear.
“So do you wanna walk me to the car?/ I’m sure to have a heavy heart/ So can we please be absolutely sure/ That there’s a mirrorball?” he sings.
Many think the car in the song isn’t referring to a physical car, but the rest of the album, so the other songs on The Car might give us some more clues about the mirrorball’s meaning.
Strangely, a mirrorball never actually makes an appearance in the music video which flips between piano clips, the singing and other random scenes.
Taylor Swift sang about a mirrorball too
There’d Better Be A Mirrorball comes two years after Taylor Swift sang about the same dance item, but its significance in her track was a lot clearer.
Mirrorball was the sixth track on her eighth studio album, Folklore, in which she compares herself to a disco ball and suggests that people get their personalities by mirroring others.
As per Genius: “She sees herself as reflecting all the personalities around her, she entertains others, and she shatters like glass when her heart is broken.”
Taylor also announced that she is releasing a new album at the VMA’s last week, revealing Midnights will be out on October 7.
