The Arctic Monkeys closed their 2006 debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, with 'A Certain Romance', a track recorded in a single live take with no headphones or overdubs. The decision stands out because the rest of the record was meticulously crafted, with the band spending two weeks at The Chapel studios in Lincolnshire perfecting one song a day, making the raw, unpolished closer a deliberate departure from that process.

Frontman Alex Turner requested the different approach on the final day of recording, wanting the track captured live in the room to reflect the song's loose, spontaneous origins as a rough sketch rather than a rehearsed number. Turner later said the band were taken aback by the result, recalling "what have we done here?" and describing the experiment as showing "ambitions beyond what we once thought we were capable of". The album went on to become the fastest-selling debut in British chart history.