2015Released
6:44

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Nocturnal. By Songfacts®.

This song kicks off Disclosure's second album, Caracal. The album's title was inspired by a jungle cat that hunts its prey at night. "A caracal is an incredible wild cat that I became fascinated with while on tour last year; I just love the way they look, their physical capabilities and their anonymity," Disclosure's Howard Lawrence explained. "It felt like a perfect fit for our Wild Life brand too, so the Caracal made perfect sense as the lead visual for the new album and over the course of recording, it also felt like a natural title for the new record too."

This six-minute jam was written at Alicia Keys' Jungle Studios in New York. The Disclosure pair was inspired by the vistas of Manhattan. "We had this amazing view of New York, and the sun was going down as we were writing," recalled Guy Lawrence to Billboard magazine. He added that the song ties into the nocturnal wildcat-referencing album title.

The song was written with and features vocals by Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye. Howard Lawrence told MTV News: "He made me appreciate how good it is to just relax in a session. We do so many sessions where we're under time restraints and Abel will just come and [makes relaxing noise]. That's why the song is so long."

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Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Nocturnal.
DKey
MinorMode
4/4Time Signature
103BPM

Album

The album Nocturnal is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Nocturnal.
Universal-Island Records Ltd.
© 2015 Island Records, a division of Universal Music Operations Limited
℗ 2015 Island Records, a division of Universal Music Operations Limited

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