Lonely Town

Album: The Desired Effect (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • This E Street Band-inspired anthem is actually Flowers' take on The Police's "Every Breath You Take," which if you listen closely, you'll realize is about obsession rather than love. "It just feels like this breezy love song," Flowers told Radio.com. "But, if you wrote the lyrics down or listened to them a little more intently, it's actually pretty creepy."

    Flowers added regarding the seemingly harmless line, "When will you come home again?" "It sounds all nice, 'When will you come home again?,' but it's really scary. Someone saying, 'When will you come home again? Did you lock the door when it shut?' You know, those lines can mean a variety of things."
  • The throwback music video features a young woman dancing around her house to Flowers' music unaware that someone is watching her through the window.
  • This features percussion by Danielle Haim. The Haim band member told NME: "I asked to play drums on 'Lonely Town' as I loved the demo. I came up with the idea for the beat, reacting to what he already had."
  • Brandon Flowers told The Sun how Danielle Haim ended up playing drums on the track: "Danielle was around a lot as Ariel (Rechtshaid, The Desired Effect producer) is working on the new Haim record. We were playing a warm-up gig in San Francisco and I asked did she want to sing on a song? Ariel said she actually wants to play drums on 'On Top' (from Hot Fuss). I'd not played 'On Top' in years and I didn't even know she was a drummer. So I got the OK from Ronnie (Vannucci Jr, Killers drummer) and she was great. And on 'Lonely Town' she killed it."

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