Slush

Album: One Life Stand (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • Joe Goddard (vocals, synthesizer and percussion) told The NME February 6, 2010: "(Guitarist) Al Doyle plays the flugelhorn, which he learned especially. He has this incredible but annoying ability of being able to pick up an instrument and play it immediately, which if you were a superhero would be a rubbish power, but as a musician it's good."
    Another example of the use of the flugelhorn in popular music is by American bebop trumpeter Marvin Stamn's on Paul McCartney's "Uncle Albert - Admiral Halsey."
  • Vocalist Alexis Taylor wrote this ambient ballad in a 6/8 time signature. A number of the tunes on One Life Stand were inspired by the birth of Taylor's daughter, Prudence. He told Rolling Stone that he worked on many of the melodies in the company of his newborn at home. "I would play piano while holding her with the other hand," he said. "That was such a nice feeling."
  • The song features the additional vocals of Charles Hayward from 1970s prog-rockers This Heat. Taylor told Pitchfork: "Charles Hayward plays and sings harmony on 'Slush,' and that's one of the most special things about the album for me because he's someone that I really look up to and love. It was exciting that he really wanted to do it, and that his children were excited that he was going to play on a Hot Chip album."
    Taylor added that he felt that the song's backing vocals sounded like a vocal exercise, using "the same cadence as many very famous melodies" and he likened it to Willie Nelson's "Crazy."

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