Various Storms & Saints

Album: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • Many of the tracks on How Big How Blue How Beautiful are about Florence Welch being in a relationship with someone who is driving her away. This song finds the songstress trying to cut ties with the man who's bringing her down, but she just can't shake him from her life.

    The lyrics include a line from a poem by Marty McConnell called Frida Kahlo to Marty McConnell, which Welch has pinned to the wall behind her bed:

    You had to have him, so you did.

    "I was writing a pep talk to myself, almost," she told The Evening Standard. "I like to hide behind reverb and a lot of backing vocals but Markus (Dravs, producer) pushed my vocals forward and was quite adamant about it. It's another layer of taking down your defenses and I was scared."

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