2014Released
3:15

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Birth In Reverse. By Songfacts®.

This song is sung from the perspective of a curtain-twitching shut-in. It starts with the line, "Oh what an ordinary day. Take out the garbage, masturbate." St. Vincent's Annie Clark recalled to NME: "I played that for my best friend and he just laughed at me, like 'The only thing you wouldn't do is take out the garbage,'" she recalled. "That's true. I probably wouldn't."

The song title is taken from a Lorrie Moore short story, Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People, from her 1998 collection Birds of America. It comes from a description of the floor plan of a Celtic passage grave, which Moore called a "birth in reverse." The final track on the St. Vincent album, "Severed Crossed Fingers," also takes inspiration from one of Lorrie Moore's short stories.

The video was directed by Willo Perron, whose company created the artwork for the album, which was the basis for the look. The concept is St. Vincent as a "near future cult leader."

Top Listeners

Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Birth In Reverse.
C♯Key
MinorMode
4/4Time Signature
162BPM

Album

The album Birth In Reverse is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Birth In Reverse.
Loma Vista
© 2013 Seven Four Entertainment and Republic Records
℗ 2013 Seven Four Entertainment and Republic Records

See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.

Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.

5.9MArtists
74.7MSongs
12.5MAlbums
6.3KGenres
2.5MLabels
494KPlaylists