Sweet Spot

Album: Present Tense (2014)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Hayden Thorpe and Tom Fleming singing of a dream state, halfway between asleep and awake over picked guitars and sparse synth. Fleming told NME: "This has a very clean guitar and synth, which we were careful not to overuse. When we sat down to record this album, we realized, 'This wants to be a pop record now.'"
  • Hayden Thorpe told DIY magazine the tune went through a huge amount of versions. "We almost wrote it off," he said. "We just couldn't get it right. The barometer was flinging either from being this Ibiza thing straight back into this song you couldn't focus on. And we couldn't get it to level out. Like most moments on the record, when we had half an hour of demo time left we scrapped what we had and started again. Within half an hour the dual guitar line came about."

    "The song itself has been around for a long time," Thorpe continued. It's about euthanasia, really. What I think a beautiful pop song should be able to do is take a very difficult subject and make it sound completely weightless; throw it up in the air like it's a feather. That's what I wanted 'Sweet Spot' to do. This might sound morbid, but the song also refers to how death and sex are from the same creature. It's the snake's head and the snake's tail."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Boz Scaggs

Boz ScaggsSongwriter Interviews

The "Lowdown" and "Lido Shuffle" singer makes a habit of playing with the best in the business.

Weird Al Yankovic

Weird Al YankovicFact or Fiction

Did Al play on a Beach Boys record? Did he have beef with George Lucas and Coolio? See if you can spot weird but true stories.

Richie McDonald of Lonestar

Richie McDonald of LonestarSongwriter Interviews

Richie talks about the impact of "Amazed," and how his 4-year-old son inspired another Lonestar hit.

Protest Songs

Protest SongsMusic Quiz

How well do you know your protest songs (including the one that went to #1)?

History Of Rock

History Of RockSong Writing

An interview with Dr. John Covach, music professor at the University of Rochester whose free online courses have become wildly popular.

Top American Idol Moments: Songs And Scandals

Top American Idol Moments: Songs And ScandalsSong Writing

Surprise exits, a catfight and some very memorable performances make our list of the most memorable Idol moments.