The Bay

Album: English Riviera (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • Metronomy is an electronic music group formed by Joseph Mount in the English Riviera region of South West England in 1999. This is the third single from the band's third album, English Riviera.
  • Mount explained the story behind the song in an interview with The Sun: "I thought that the English Riviera deserved some kind of triumphant anthem. In those West Coast American groups, they sing/sang about San Francisco, California and Hollywood. I wanted to do the same. Although English bands can sometimes have a real pride in their home towns, they very rarely sing about their towns in that very American, literal way. 'The Bay' is maybe the most tongue-in-cheek song on the record, but in no way is it ironic. It's hopefully an anthem for the people that go to clubs there."
  • Mount started Metronomy while he was still living in South West England as a side project to the various bands he played drums for. He explained the band's name to The Sun: "It was the brain of a 17-year-old who liked Aphex Twin and Square-pusher that came up with it. I thought it would be cool to combine the word metronome with astronomy. For a 17-year-old, that was a pretty cool idea. Now it has stuck."

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