Songfacts®:

• On June 14, 2017, the 24-story Grenfell Tower block of public housing flats in North Kensington, London, caught fire. The blaze took the lives of 79 residents, making it the deadliest fire in mainland Britain in over a century. Elbow frontman Guy Garvey had just moved to London from Manchester when Manchester Arena was bombed, then Grenfell happened just a few weeks later.
  
  Here, Garvey talks about how impotent he felt as the two scenarios occurred.
  
  I was born with trust
  That didn't survive the white noise of the lies
  The white heat of injustice has taken my eyes
  I just wanna get high
  
  Garvey admitted to Apple Music: "My reaction was: 'This is so horrifying, I can't wait to get drunk.' I realize this is becoming quite a popular thing, people looking for their high because nobody can stare what's happening in the face."
  
• During the second verse, Garvey namechecks mid-20th century Anglo-Italian orchestra leader Mantovani to illustrate how useless he felt in the face of the human tragedies.
  
  But who am I some Blarney Mantovani with a lullaby when the sky is falling in
  I believe I'm giving in
  But who am I?
  
  Garvey explained to The Sun: "I don't know if you remember Mantovani - he did really cheesy string arrangements of popular hits in the '70s. That song came from the feelings of uselessness that I and any privileged person had concerning Grenfell. People were dying because they were poor. The slow erosion of civil liberties has led to health and safety checks not being carried out and poor people not being looked after and burning to death on account of people cutting corners."
• Guy Garvey told Q magazine about this furious response to Grenfell and the Manchester bombing. "I wouldn't ever pretend to write a protest song on behalf of the survivors of either of those things. 'White Noise White Heat' is about the feeling of culpability, feelings of being part of the societal problem that led to homegrown terrorism or the erosion of safety procedures in favor of landlords getting a few more quid. If you're part of the society that lets that happen, then you feel culpable, if you give a s--t. But also feelings of uselessness because, as the song states, what good is a songwriter in the face of all such things? It's pretty pointless."