Blue Lips

Spektor is notoriously reluctant to discuss the meanings of her songs. When Spin magazine asked her what this song is about, she replied: "Well, that's really hard for me. I don't really think of songs in those terms. I don't sit down with an agenda and go, "I'm going to write a song about…" you know? I just start playing a little bit on the piano, and then I start singing a little bit, and then it's over - and there's a song. Sometimes, very rarely, I can trace the ancestry of a lyric, and I'll be like, "Oh, it's a combination of that person I saw in the street and that one painting I saw in a museum, and that one movie I saw," or something like that. But for the most part, it's not really clear even to me. People think that if you can't explain a linear meaning, then the song's meaningless, or that you just put words together because they sound nice. But it's not that either. It feels completely meaningful - it all means very exact stuff. I even feel like it's super important to use "a" instead of "the" in some songs, you know? I'll be moving tiny little things around in my mouth, and then I'll get them just right and it sort of freezes - and that's fate."

Jeff Lynne (ELO, The Traveling Wilburys) produced this song. The British musician/producer also helmed "Genius Next Door," "Folding Chair" and "Wallet" on Far. Despite The Washington Post naming him the fourth greatest record producer in history in 2008, Spektor admitted to BBc News that she had very little idea about her collaborator' pedigree before she went into the studio. She admitted: "I memorised his name off a Tom Petty record that I really liked called Highway Companion because I just loved how it sounded. It was only later that I found out he'd done all this other stuff."

Spektor told Entertainment Weekly that she really enjoyed working with Lynne. She said: "He's amazing, in every way. He plays everything and anything. He's just like, 'Oh, we need drums on this, I'll play. Oh, we need guitar. Oh, we need 12-string, or banjo.' He can just pick anything up and play it. And he sings. It was really fun to get to sing with him. We sing harmonies on "Genius Next Door" and on "Blue Lips." Certain things he did, I would never have thought to do, like the way the piano fades up on "Blue Lips." I love things like that because they would have never entered my mind. That's the exciting thing about working with producers, because you get to work with ideas that would have never popped into your head."