This Is Not a Game

Album: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • This track was manned by the British production duo, The Chemical Brothers. Most of the vocals are provided by R&B singer, Miguel, who surprisingly raps rather than croons the words. Lorde, the album's overall curator, also contributes to the chorus and sings the outro.
  • Asked by Fader whose idea it was for Miguel to rap on the track, Lorde replied: "There was this very early beat that the Chemical Brothers sent me. They sent me ten beats, and that was the one I kept coming back to."

    "It had no melody, and I was trying to dream up this amazingly melodic person on this amazingly melody-less beat, and I thought of Miguel," she continued. "I said, 'Are you a fan of Chemical Brothers by any chance?' He was, and he was able to deliver in that style. I hadn't heard Miguel in that way, and I haven't heard Chemical Brothers in that way, so it was pretty cool for me."

    "Someone called it 'playing god' earlier, which is a weird way of thinking about it, but it really felt limitless to me to sit in my bedroom on the tour bus and think up dream combinations of people who deserved to be in each other's presence," Lorde added, "people who I thought could learn from each other."

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