Resolution

Album: Resolution (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • The Australian singer-songwriter wrote the tune in early 2013 when he was living in Los Angeles trying to record his debut album, which he ultimately decided not to release. In his Songfacts interview, Matt Corby spoke about the strange encounter he had with the City of Angels. "I had a weird, isolating experience in LA leading up to that moment," he said. "I hadn't left my apartment for a couple of days. I was running out of food. But for some reason, I was just freaked out about going outside. It was weird.

    LA is an intense city. I was probably a bit too sensitive. I didn't have any friends so I was keeping pretty low key. I just whipped myself up into a bit of an emotional frenzy.

    You know when you can just be alone and all of a sudden everything's different? You're just depressed and it's like, 'Whoa! What the hell is going on?' Out of that moment, I was questioning everything. 'Why am I so anxious? What's my problem here?' I guess the song came out of that."
  • Corby explained in a newsletter to his fans how his disheartening experience with La-La Land inspired the song. "I was just a little overwhelmed with the outward nature of the society and the culture living in that part of the world. It's relentlessly in-your-face," he wrote. "People are very outward spoken about who they are and what they do to make money or for social credibility. There's also this constant bombardment of mass media and million dollar marketing campaigns - telling you 'you're not a complete person and you're definitely not completely satisfied with your existence…. BUT if you give us some of your hard earned money we will give you a product that will change all that…'. It's impossible to escape. I found myself succumbing to that pressure and became so transfixed on all the dumb s--t I don't have and the life I should be living - and had lost sight of what was truly important...

    Other people.

    I wrote 'Resolution' on the last of four days not leaving my place. It's about shedding what is needless and unnecessary and embracing the love you should have for other people, because without them you just have a whole lot of pointless s--t that would, in turn, be of no worth."
  • "Resolution" earned Corby his second consecutive Song of the Year award at the 2013 ARIAs (Australia's Grammys). He won the previous year for "Brother."
  • In the video interview for Corby's 2014 APRA's Song of the Year nomination, he described his intention when he wrote the tune. "I wanted to have something that was poetic and suggestive but still mysterious but obviously relatable, which is what most songwriters try to do," he said. "And, hopefully, I think I accomplished it in some sense."
  • The song was voted #8 in the Australian radio station Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2013.
  • The music video captures Corby and his band recording the song in LA. It was nominated for Video of the Year at the ARIAs, but lost to Samantha Jade's "Firestarter."
  • A live performance of the song appears on the 2013 Live On the Resolution Tour EP.

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