Keep Your Name

Album: Dirty Projectors (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • The Dirty Projectors album, released on February 21, 2017 is a breakup record written in the aftermath of frontman David Longstreth's split with Amber Coffman, his former bandmate and girlfriend. This song is a melancholy, multi-part electro ballad in which Longstreth croons his sorrow and anger about the failing relationship before breaking into a rap. Uncut magazine asked the Dirty Projectors singer if his writing about his breakup was cathartic. He replied:

    "Music has been the way I have processed life and experience, and it was a natural thing to do, cathartic. It's front loaded with a shock, horror and sadness, out-and-out despair, processing that experience, and ending up, if not in a good place, then at least in a place of acceptance."
  • The song contains a sample of "Sheathed Wings" by American electronic musician Dan Deacon.
  • The black-and-white video incorporates close-up angles of David Longstreth, plus original drawings. It was co-directed by the Dirty Projectors frontman with Kanye West's creative director Elon Rutberg.

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