Folk Hero Shtick

Album: Fragrant World (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Yeasayer targeting someone making music for all the wrong reasons - "The emperor's standing naked. How much longer can he fake it?," seethes vocalist/keyboardist Chris Keating. "It's a very direct lyrical attack, but I'd prefer not to say who it's about," guitarist/keyboardist Anand Wilder told UK newspaper, The Guardian. "Ira has some idea who it's about. But it's also directed at ourselves and this idea of buying into your own mythology and the danger it can bring – just being so egomaniacal and not caring about the little guy, but pretending that you do."
  • Yeasayer Guitarist/keyboardist Anand Wilder told Complex magazine that musically, the band, "were trying to pack as many influences as we could into one song. It's kind of schizophrenic. It goes all over the place. It's a little bit of a throwback to our psychedelic era, with the swirling, 12-string guitars."

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