After George W. Bush was re-elected as president of the United States in 2004, a frustrated Moby contemplated the rise of intolerance and fundamentalism in the world. While the anthemic lead single from Hotel, his seventh studio album, isn't specifically about Bush, it is about how leaders like him are able to stay in power. "'Lift Me Up' is about the human propensity towards turning off our higher, critical, rational cognitive functions and willfully and enthusiastically degenerating to an atavistic tribal state wherein we don't judge things from an empirical, rational perspective, but rather from a limbic, feral, tribal perspective," Moby explained on his website. "And it's also about how religious leaders and political leaders (and, well, entertainers, too…but hopefully in a relatively benign way…) play upon people's willingness to lose themselves in said atavistic, tribal, collective, irrational behavior. (Most descriptive line: 'It's sweeter than doubt,' regarding the certainty that comes with 'true belief')."
Moby wrote this as a tribute to the English goth-rock band The Sisters of Mercy, who released a string of UK hits in the mid-'80s, including "This Corrosion" and "Dominion." He wanted to get the band's frontman, Andrew Eldritch, to sing on the tune, but he couldn't track him down.
Broadway performer Shayna Steele (Rent, Jesus Christ Superstar), provided backing vocals.
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