5AM

Album: Little Red (2013)
Charted: 14
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Songfacts®:

  • This tune finds Katy singing about that moment after a night spent clubbing when the music's over but you're helplessly overpowered by the voice in your head telling you to keep going:

    "I need somebody to calm me down
    A little loving like Valium
    I need somebody to knock me out."

    Katy told Q magazine "The song is about going home, realizing you are a bit lonely and there is no one better to spend your time with. It's been quite a while since I had a cuddle."
  • Katy described the song's infectious house beat as "uncomfortable, something I like but I shouldn't."
  • The song was produced by London-based producer Geeneus, who worked with Katy on much of her 2011 debut On a Mission. This was one of seven tracks he manned the boards for Little Red. "There are quite a few [Geeneus] tracks on the album… He's definitely a massive part of it," Katy noted to Billboard magazine. "He's kind of like my Timbaland to Missy Elliott."

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