Hurting

Album: Pala (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • For Friendly Fires' second album, Pala, the band came up with some unusual recording techniques. The basis of this track is a chopped-up old '80s disco record, over which they played on top then add added additional layers to it. Frontman Ed Macfarlane told NME: "Our first foray into MPC sampling and taking other people's music and then playing our own music over the top. Which is a risky thing, but it just felt like it was interesting."
  • The song features a guest spot by the Harlem Gospel Choir. Said Macfarlane to Spinner UK: "We got the Harlem Gospel Choir to sing backing vocals and it really suits the track because it's got a really soulful, '80s R&B, classic pop edge."
  • The song's music video features Macfarlane's head superimposed on the body of someone else doing his dance moves for him. The singer told Spinner that finding the right booty shaker wasn't easy. "I got sent all these audition videos of people supposedly dancing like me. And it was like 'Yeah, he's kind of got the hip movement there,'" he laughed. "The person essentially has to be me. They have to wander down the street dancing like me. Some of them were terrible. There was one video I was like, 'Please tell me I don't dance like that. That's rubbish.'"

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