Brianstorm

Prior to the single, there had been a great deal of media speculation questioning the band's ability to emulate their successes of 2006 and their debut album. The single marks a noticeable change in the band's logo and cover art, with the "frenetic" cover art seeming to mirror the nature of the track. The track has no chorus, but features an "ascending guitar duel which sounds like a cross between "Telstar", Mogwai and the Monkeys' own "When the Sun Goes Down"." A feature of Arctic Monkeys songs in the past, Alex Turner's Sheffield-accent is again a feature, "singing over rough, relentless bass and surprisingly appropriate guitar triplets."

When asked to say a little about the song's protagonist, Alex Turner replied, "I can't remember Brian now... I don't know if he were in my imagination or what... it's a blank spot in my brain... I think that's what he [Brian] wanted." He later explained in NME that Brian had been a guy that they had met backstage in the band's dressing room at a gig at Studio Coast "Ageha" in Tokyo, Japan. He said, "When he left the room, we were a bit in awe of his presence. So we did a brainstorm for what he was like, drew a little picture and wrote things about him", while guitarist Jamie Cook added, "He was right smooth, very LA. He just appeared with like a business card and like a round neck T-shirt and a tie loosely around it, I'd never seen that before. It felt like he was trying to get inside your mind. We were checking out his attire; it inspired us."

Alfie Sansom from Argus Far described one of the single's B-sides "fun enough", and that "the riff builds with an edgy urgency and pomp", but commented on the Dizzee Rascal feature, adding that he "just expected more from what is probably the most mid-2000s UK collaboration ever".

The music video for the song, directed by Huse Monfaradi, features the band playing in a sparse sepia set, interspersed with clips of female dancers in front of a large computerised display, stock footage from old medical educational programs and brief flashes of images of objects mentioned in the lyrics, such as "Brian", "jacuzzi" and lightning in place of "thunder". The video was recorded on 14 February 2007, the same day as the 2007 Brit Awards, leading to them missing the ceremony and instead sending two video acceptance messages where they dressed as The Wizard of Oz characters and the Village People. The video premiered on MTV2 on 17 March 2007.

"Brianstorm" gained notoriety in the United States after being played during a three-way brawl between talk show hosts Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart on the February 4, 2008 episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien (during the final weeks of the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike), as well as being featured in the rhythm video game Guitar Hero 5, in which it is considered to be one of the hardest tracks on drums due to its sporadic tom-tom beats.

All music is composed by Arctic Monkeys.

Personnel taken from Favourite Worst Nightmare liner notes.

Arctic Monkeys

• Alex Turner
• Jamie Cook
• Nick O'Malley
• Matt Helders

Technical personnel

• Mike Crossey, production
• James Ford, production
• Alan Moulder, mixing
• George Marino, mastering