Casual Party

Album: Why Are You OK (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song finds frontman Ben Bridwell singing about being tied up in "awful conversation" at a casual party. He details his attempt to leave the boring social engagement. When Bridwell is back home in Charleston, South Carolina with his family, plenty of such gatherings await. "I'm not sitting there trying to grow up by any means," he told MTV News. "I forget that I'm supposed to, until something like a damn f--king dinner party shows up, or I have to do something stupid."

    He added, smiling: "Uh, that's not nice."
  • The song is the lead single from Band Of Horses fifth album, Why Are You OK. The record title is taken from a mistyped e-mail sent by Ben Bridwell's daughter to a teacher. He told NME: "I remember thinking it was funny as s--t that she sent that to my kid's teacher. She was three at the time and just typed in some garbage to my wife's phone and it happened to be a reply to one of the teachers. And it's 'why are you OK' without any punctuation. I was like 'what an interesting statement or question.'"

    Asked by NME why he felt the title was right for this album Bridwell replied: "For lack of a better answer, her older sister Annabelle, I had a song for her on our third record called 'For Annabelle'. Ivy is the second oldest and she's like 'when's my song dad?' They know barely what I do. I was like 'good question, but again I don't write like that'. I couldn't if you asked me to, but I know her time's coming. They all go into it so much - it's like 'if only I could explain to you how many lyrics you're a part of.'"

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