Low Life

Album: VHS (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song features UK blues rocker Jamie N Commons with whom the band also worked with on their 2014 breakthrough hit "Jungle." X Ambassadors vocalist Sam Harris wrote the song with Commons and producer Alex Da Kid. Harris recalled in a track-by-track commentary: "This one was the first one that we ever wrote together and it started out pretty simply. Alex had the fundamentals for this track and I wrote this chorus over it with him and then he was in the studio with Jamie and he brought the song to Jamie and he just cut verses."
  • Harris explained the song's meaning: "It's a song about, you know, feeling like a scumbag, feeling like an a--hole. And no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, no matter how hard you work to move past it and become a better person, that's always going to be a part of you."
  • The song soundtracked the end credits of the Season Four Premiere of Showtime drama series Ray Donovan.
  • A remix of the song, titled "Low Life 2.0," was released on June 28, 2016 as the first single from VHS 2.0, the deluxe edition of VHS. This new version features additional vocals from rapper A$AP Ferg.

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