Disconnected

Album: Strangeland (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • Keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley wrote this jaunty track when he was driving up the West Coast of America. He said on Keane's website: "I suspect it may have had its origins in some argument or other with my wife, but I can't remember! But since that no doubt passed very quickly, I think the song has quite a jaunty feel to it, not too weighed down by its lyrical content! I think it's quite Beatles-y in that respect - sad words with a very 'happy' melody. I like the imagery of a relationship being like a decrepit house, especially the line about boarding up the windows."
  • Having initially filed it away, Rice-Oxley only finished the song after stumbling across the rough sketch in the studio and giving it a quick listen, just as bassist Jesse Quin came in and said, "What's that? I love it!"
  • The song's music video was filmed in a haunted house in Barcelona, Spain and was inspired by the aesthetic of 1970s horror films. The clip was co-directed by Spanish directors JA Bayona and Sergio G. Sanchez., who joined forces for the first time in the cult horror movie The Orphanage - Bayona as director and Sanchez as screenwriter.
  • This won Best Video at the 2012 Q Awards. Vocalist Tom Chaplin modestly gave credit to the directors. He told the magazine: "We just gave them the song and they dreamt up this unbelievable idea."

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