Songfacts®:

• Mark E Smith, the frontman of the Manchester rock band The Fall, features on the breakdown of this song. The Guardian February 27, 2010 commented to bassist Murdoc that apart from, "Where's north from here?" they couldn't understand a word he was singing. The Gorillaz bass player replied: "Oh, he lets out a whole bunch of stuff. 'It waaaass the GLITTER FREEZE!' 'Listen-ah! You wouldn't credit or believe this-ah'. But you're not meant to be able to understand it; just meant to feel the force of this pirate ship sailing into the middle of the album."
• Murdoc said on Gorillaz's website: "I'm really glad we managed to get Mark E. Smith on the record. I'm not sure he felt the same, but y'know. He wanted to do his part facing north. 'Which way's north from here?' We used his question as a little intro, kind of like what we did with Shaun Ryder on 'DARE'. Sometimes the greatest moments are those little mistakes that you catch in the mix when you're just warming up." The animated bassist added: "Like 'Punk' on the first album, and 'White Light' on Demon Days, this is the album's rawkus section of chaos. Every album's got to have one."