State Hospital

Album: Pedestrian Verse (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • This was the first song that frontman and chief songwriter Scott Hutchison wrote for Pedestrian Verse. He told The Skinny magazine: "Lyrically, it set a standard which I tried to uphold on the rest of the songs. It was my first foray into writing about someone else's life and constructing a character other than a version of myself."
  • The album title is taken from a lyric in this song. Hutchinson said: "I felt it was a nicely faceted title, with enough layered meaning to remain open to interpretation. Above all though, it was a gauntlet I threw down for myself. If you call your album 'Pedestrian Verse,' you can't settle for any old lyric. It forced me to better myself."
  • This song was originally included as the title track of Frightened Rabbit's EP State Hospital, which was released on September 24, 2012.
  • Hutchinson admitted to The Guardian that on Frightened Rabbit's previous album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, he was writing about himself and tried, to veil the meanings "because I didn't want to potentially hurt people in my life." On Pedestrian Verse, Hutchinson found himself writing about others such as this song's woman "born into a grave". "I thought, can I invest the same detail and emotion in someone else's experiences?" he said. "I wanted it to be a dense album, but I didn't want it to feel like a diary entry."

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