Systematic

Album: High Noon (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • The closing track on High Noon was one of the last songs written for the record and ended where the first song, "Fake Money," began. It discusses smart people in power who can make their ideas fit whatever situation that suits them best. The tune explains the need to call those people out when it causes inequality.
  • The song started out as a '70s groove reminiscent of the Rolling Stones song, "Miss You." Arkells frontman, Max Kerman, asked their keyboardist, Anthony Carone, to write a strings arrangement for the tune. Carone came up with something that sounded a lot like "Canned Heat" by Jamiroquai, so "Systematic" ended up being a melding of the '90s soul-pop and the '70s sound of The Rolling Stones.

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