This bubbling cut features a sample of Sinnamon's 1983 single "I Need You Now." "I had written the music and found the sample we needed for the chorus, and I presented it to Alexis, who I think wrote the lyrics on that day," co-vocalist Joe Goddard recalled to The Independent. "He was feeling kind of melancholy, and the music evoked something he was feeling at that moment. I don't think it was that premeditated. That's where the best Hot Chip music comes from: a kind of immediate, fresh take on the music." "It's that thing you get when someone suffers with melancholy or depression: you feel like you're trapped in this downward spiral, like there's no escape," he added.
The music video was directed by London-based art collective Shynola, whose other credits include Queens of the Stone Age's "Go With The Flow" and How To Destroy Angels' "How Long?." Shot in Hastings on England's south coat and near the late film director Derek Jarman's garden in Dungeness, the clip finds a helpless Alexis Taylor facing the aftermath of a breakup.
Alexis Taylor: "'Need You Now' is a bit different to anything I've previously written about - it's about the bleak reality of living in a world where terrorism exists in such a visible way. The track isn't trying to solve anything, it's just a recognition of the fact that it's there and we're helpless against it. Hot Chip songs are usually about relationships – either my own or my relationship to the music we make... 'Need You Now' comes from a more pessimistic place. It's an attempt to condense down that sense of helplessness you get watching the news."
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