Secret Door

On this oddly time-signatured and orchestrated lullaby, songwriter Alex Turner pays romantic homage to a female companion, presumably the singer's TV presenter girlfriend, Alexa Chung.

This is one of two Humbug tracks to be produced by Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford, a veteran of Favourite Worst Nightmare and Turner's 'side project' The Last Shadow Puppets' The Age of the Understatement. The Last Shadow Puppets certainly inspired this pop ballad's uplifting orchestration.

The Monkeys recorded this song at The Integraton a 38-foot high wooden dome a half hours drive south of Joshua Tree in the Mojave Desert where they were based. Turner explained to Uncut Magazine: "Yeah, we were mostly locked up in this little house doing the record, but we had time for a little bit of recreation! Later on in the recording we did a trip to this place called the Integratron. It's a structure erected by a fellow called George Van Tassel who had a visit in the night from some kind of being who instructed him to build an acoustically sound dome involving an electro-magnet. I haven't got the diagram here but it's believed that the objective in building this thing was to recharge or rejuvenate human cells, except he never finished it before he died. Because it's acoustically sound, if someone talks across from you it sounds like they're right by your ear. It's a mad place. We did a little recording of 'Secret Door' there one night."