Say Goodbye

Album: Little Broken Hearts (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • Lyrically, Little Broken Hearts is a break-up album, and the record finds Jones exorcising the ghost of the failed relationship in a variety of different reactions. For example, this song is the first hint of her anger and bitterness at her beau's failings.
  • Jones teamed up with Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton, the multi-instrumentalist/producer best known for his work with Gnarls Barkley, for the set. When the singer arrived in L.A. ready to work with him, she brought with her several new tunes that she'd penned in the wake of her failed romance. "I never really intended to write about [my breakup] and it's still kind of encrypted," Jones told Exclaim! Magazine. "We've all gone through things and had those moments. Whether you're going through a breakup that's serious or casual or you're jealous of something. We've all had twinges of these feelings at some point. Or, the older you get, you will. It became more about me and Brian being a little bit more philosophical about relationships. We definitely got inside each other's heads. I wouldn't have been able to write these kinds of songs with somebody I didn't know that well. We would take a feeling and kind of run with it... but the album's not a diary. I was never nervous about writing it, because I know what's real and what's not."
  • Sonically, this is the most far-reaching track Jones has recorded to date. She told The Sun: "That's one of my proudest moments. It sounds electronic but it was actually a live track and I play bass on it."
  • UK newspaper The Independent on Sunday asked Jones if her ex knows which songs on Little Broken Hearts are about him? She replied, faltering: "Yeah, it's fine, it's totally... yeah," before adding. "He probably knows what's real and what's not more than anyone. I'm not too worried about it."

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