The title of this song refers to the chess-playing super computer developed by IBM that defeated grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1996. The song treats the triumph of technology over human as a generational loss of innocence.
Frontman Win Butler told the NME: "'Deep Blue' to me sounds like Neil Young with Depeche Mode at the end - which shouldn't work, but I think it does."
Clash magazine asked Win Butler which tracks were the hardest for The Suburbs. He replied: "A song like 'Deep Blue' we tried many different ways. We finished it as this total synth song and it kind of left us cold. Me and my brother were playing around with some stuff at home and we found this balance between this almost demo quality and the synth stuff. While making this record I re-read [Radiohead guitarist] Ed O'Brien's diary about making 'Kid A.' There were a couple of songs where he says, 'We started this a year-and-a-half ago and it's the simplest song on the album. We've just mixed it and it sounds like how it did on day one. It took us a year to finish.' I think sometimes the simplest stuff takes the longest."
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