Get Better

Album: The Dream (2021)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This poignant song starts off with vocalist Joe Newman longing for his partner in intensive care to get better. Sadly, she dies, and the track ends with his memories of a happy time the pair spent wandering through the Serpentine gallery.

    Newman also inserts a tribute to frontline workers toiling amid the horrors of the COVID pandemic.
  • "Get Better" is an amalgamation of two songs.

    The chorus is something Newman improvised in 2018 to his partner when she was suffering from period pain. She filmed him singing "Get better my Darcy, I know you can," and Newman kept revisiting the snippet intending to write more.

    The verses came from a chord structure Newman worked on in lockdown where he recounts a fictional tale about someone living through a bereavement. "The context of the coronavirus pandemic lent my words a chilling weight and gave me a new sense of responsibility as a lyricist," he said.
  • The German pixel artist Stefanie Grunwald created the animated video.
  • The song is full of vivid details such as the grieving man holding onto a jar of his late partner's favorite Nutella spread. Newman had been gathering the lyrical snippets for at least a decade. "We experience a lot of harrowing things in our lives," he told The Guardian. "They build up and you write about them in time, and you come up with ideas that fit those emotions and you put it all together."
  • Alt-J performed the song live for the first time during a December 9, 2021 gig at the Fender Artist Showroom in London. The band - minus drummer Thom Green - played their special set to demonstrate the brand new Fender Acoustasonic Player Telecaster guitar.
  • April, the wife of keyboardist Gus Unger-Hamilton, contributes spoken vocals.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

70s Music Quiz 1

70s Music Quiz 1Music Quiz

The '70s gave us Muppets, disco and Van Halen, all which show up in this groovy quiz.

Al Jourgensen of Ministry

Al Jourgensen of MinistrySongwriter Interviews

In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.

The Punk Photography of Chris Stein

The Punk Photography of Chris SteinSong Writing

Chris Stein of Blondie shares photos and stories from his book about the New York City punk scene.

Mike Campbell

Mike CampbellSongwriter Interviews

Mike is lead guitarist with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and co-writer of classic songs like "Boys Of Summer," "Refugee" and "The Heart Of The Matter."

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s Edition

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s EditionMusic Quiz

You know the scenes - Tom Cruise in his own pants-off dance off, Molly Ringwald celebrating her birthday - but do you remember what song is playing?

Chris Squire of Yes

Chris Squire of YesSongwriter Interviews

One of the most dynamic bass player/songwriters of his time, Chris is the only member of Yes who has been with the band since they formed in 1968.