So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings

Album: Pang (2019)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is a single from Pang, the third studio album by former Chairlift singer Caroline Polachek. The record is her first released under her given name after dropping solo projects under the Ramona Lisa and CEP monikers (CEP is her initials).

    Pang is a breakup album inspired by finding new love after her marriage to the contemporary artist Ian Drennen collapsed. This peppy synth-pop track finds her exploring the feelings of longing in a long-distance relationship.
  • Not like I'm counting the days
    But it's been 25


    This song takes place 25 days after Polachek last saw her lover. She explained to Genius: "Long-distance relationships definitely have psychological calendars in them. I feel like when you go two weeks without seeing someone it's fine, it's chill, and once you pass the third week, stuff starts getting a little weird. Is this a thing? Are we still together? Is this real? Am I wasting my time? Am I wasting their time? You starting asking a lot of questions after day 21."
  • Polachek wrote the song with Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo's "Drivers License") and frequent Shawn Mendes collaborator Teddy Geiger. Nigro recalled to Billboard how Polachek walked in with the track's concept already fully formed. "She literally came into the room and said, 'I want to write a song called, 'So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings,' and we were just like, 'Let's go.'"
  • The writing process for the entire song, except the bridge, took just two hours. "It was just like, 'Oh wow, we did something - and it felt good,'" Nigro recalled.
  • Polachek performed the song live on the January 30, 2020 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! marking her first solo live television appearance.
  • Charli XCX's creative director A. G. Cook did a remix. Polachek released his version as the lead single from her remix album Standing at the Gate: Remix Collection.
  • Pang received critical acclaim from many music sites and magazines. Dazed placed it #1 on their list of best 2019 albums.

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