Hang Me Out To Dry
by Metronomy (featuring Robyn)

Album: Summer 08 (2016)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This Summer 08 track finds Metronomy frontman Joe Mount duetting with Swedish songstress Robyn. An early draft of the tune was recorded for The English Riviera but it has only now realized its full potential.
  • Speaking to Zane Lowe on his Beats 1 show, Joe Mount paid tribute to Robyn. "She's just got this incredible singular voice in pop music and you hear it now everywhere," he said. "You hear it in Lorde and Taylor Swift songs. She started this thing which is everywhere now. I love her voice and to have it on my music feels good."

    "From what I understand she got involved in pop music from 16 years old," he continued. "I think she took those experiences and decided that she wanted to be a boss, basically, and since then has been in control of everything."

    "You hear that in all of her records, it's just a very direct sound," Mount concluded. "It's also this Swedish pop thing, which I was trying to speak to her about. There's this incredible history of Swedish pop music and, there you go, they've done it again."
  • To hang somebody out to dry means to leave them in a dangerous or perilous situation such as When he lost the order, his bosses simply hung him out to dry. The expression alludes to hanging wet laundry on a clothesline, which is left flapping in the wind.
  • Joe Mount was appreciative of Robyn's professional attitude. "Working with her was really easy and really quick because she's been doing it since she was 16 years old," he told Artist Direct. "She's a pro. So working with her was just a pleasure and it didn't take very long, so most of the time we went and had some food (Laughs). More of the sessions involved us having nice dinners then it did really recording."
  • The music video was created by filmmaking collective Dent De Cuir. Set in an underground car park, it draws from lyrics like, "You're behind the wheel. Drive" as we see a young woman whose car reflects painful memories of an ex-lover. Dent De Cuir said in a press release:

    "A great man of cinema once said: 'All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun.' We just swapped the gun for a car. This concept offered a great metaphor: love is just a car ride. But let's cut the crap here, we did all of this for one reason: to put a check mark over 'burning a 70s Dodge Aspen' on our bucket list."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The Kingdom

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The KingdomSongwriter Interviews

The Bush frontman on where he finds inspiration for lyrics, if his "machine head" is a guitar tuner, and the stories behind songs from the album The Kingdom.

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")Songwriter Interviews

Phil was a songwriter, producer and voice behind many Philadelphia soul classics. When disco hit, he got an interesting project: The Village People.

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The Remasters

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The RemastersSong Writing

Brian has unearthed outtakes by Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello and hundreds of other artists for reissues. Here's how he does it.

Reverend Horton Heat

Reverend Horton HeatSongwriter Interviews

The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.

British Invasion

British InvasionFact or Fiction

Go beyond The Beatles to see what you know about the British Invasion.

Chris Rea

Chris ReaSongwriter Interviews

It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.