Rent I Pay

This They Want My Soul track finds Britt Daniel singing of how the rent we pay for living is life itself. He explains in the song the expression "that's the rent I pay" is something that his brother would say.

Daniel knew this would be one of Spoon's most popular tracks. He recalled to Uncut magazine: "When we just got the basic track down on 'Rent I Pay,' we were recording out in the country in upstate New York. At the end of the day we would all pile into our rental van and listen to what we did that day, and we put on 'Rent I Pay,' and I got some shivers. It was hard rock in a way that we hadn't done before. And it crosses your mind – people will like this, because I really like it."

Daniel on how the song came together: "I sublet a friend of a friend's apartment who was going away for the summer. But, while I was writing that song, or coming up for the very first demo for it, I was going to program a drum machine or something so I could play along to it. Then I thought, 'Well, I've got this sampler set up right here. It will be easier just to make my own beat and loop it. It will be done quicker.' I mean, it wasn't like a stylized thing and I didn't think I would ever use it. I was just trying to come up with the fastest way I could to have this beat down that I could play along to. Then I realized that it was wild, so I gradually talked Jim (Eno) into letting that be the beat."