Bitter Pill

Album: Mt. Desolation (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • Mt. Desolation are an Alternative Country band formed by Keane's Tim Rice-Oxley and the band's live bassist Jesse Quin. Also featuring in the line-up are Noah & The Whale's fiddle player Tom Hobden, Brigade drummer Fimbo, singer-songwriters Andrew Lowe, Pete Roe and Jessica Staveley-Taylor, plus Long Winters frontman John Roderick. This was the first single from the project, released in North America only.
  • This was one of the first songs written for the Mt. Desolation project. "The song traces a story back through time to a young love affair, and someone going off to find better, more exciting things while dropping someone really harshly," Rice-Oxley explained to Spin Magazine, "only to realize that what they wanted all along was there at home in their little town, with the person they started out with."
  • Rice-Oxley picks up the mic as the lead vocalist on this track. His only previous credit as the main singer was on Keane's "Your Love." He told Spin Magazine: "For me and Jesse, that was the biggest challenge of all, to do the singing rather than hiding behind [Keane singer] Tom [Chaplin]."

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