L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.

Album: Last Night on Earth (2011)
Charted: 14
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Songfacts®:

  • This is the first single from Last Night on Earth, the third studio album from the English folk-pop outfit Noah and the Whale. The album's title is a nod towards Charles Bukowski's poetry collection The Last Night of the Earth.
  • Production wise, Last Night on Earth is a much more contemporary sounding record than the band's previous two albums. Frontman Charlie Fink explained in an interview with Contactmusic.com how this song helped guide its sound: "This was a turning point in the album. When we started playing the songs for this album, they sounded like '70s rock songs. I decided that I didn't want to make a '70s rock album so we came in and recorded that song. The production of how it sounds now is kind of how the demo sounded. It's narrative bound, like the other tracks off the album. In terms of its sound, it sits very much in the middle of the record."
  • This song finds Fink singing of barmaids and struggling writers finding strength in their faith in the future. A theme that runs through Last Night On Earth is the endless possibilities that lie behind a life-changing decision. The singer told the NME: "On the album there's a lot of people changing their lives or people about to make a change. The last few years have been transformative for me, I've made a lot of changes in my life. Nothing particularly drastic, but a lot of things on the album are about that moment, making the first step out."
  • Last Night On Earth found Fink writing an entire album from a third person narrative, something he found "very liberating." "It's impossible to write without being personal, but you can do it without so much writing about your own life," Fink told Spinner. "You can take these characters and spin them in any direction you want."

    One example is this tale of an aged nightclub dancer and a lonely writer. "Some songs you write in five minutes, some songs you write in five months -- that was just a song that happened really naturally," Fink explained. "Two months into writing the new album, all the songs were sounding like '70s rock songs, and I wanted to try something different so I went in there and demoed that song."
  • British director Sophie Muller (Duffy, Kings of Leon, Gwen Stefani) helmed the music video, which features the band at a lounge with a Marilyn Monroe lookalike. British actor Dan Westwick (Casualty) also stars.

Comments: 1

  • Lavinia from UkThis song is my childhood, my mum or sister had the CD and I always begged for it in the car.
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