Sweater Weather

Album: I Love You (2013)
Charted: 49 14
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Songfacts®:

  • The Neighbourhood is a California-based alternative rock band that formed in August 2011. The band comprises vocalist Jesse Rutherford, guitarists Jeremy Freedman and Zach Abels, bassist Mikey Margott, and drummer Bryan Sammis. In May 2012, the band unveiled their first self-released free EP, I'm Sorry, which featured this song. A year later, after signing to Columbia Records, The Neighbourhood released their first full length album, I Love You.
  • The twelve tracks on I Love You push the listener through a series of angst-ridden themes based on both the vibe and lyrical content of the songs. Bryan Sammis explained to Coup De Main magazine: "I think that at least in terms of the musical aspect of it, all of us try and get our own emotions out through our instruments, which is not always the easiest thing to do. I think for Jesse [Rutherford] lyrically, what I really like about him and about us as a band is that a lot of his lyrics aren't necessarily pre-ordained, because he's not trying to force it. A lot of his lyrics are off the top of his head when he first hears the song, because that makes it more natural, it's legitimately what he is thinking about and how he is feeling when he hears that song."
  • Rutherford told Swide that this track posed the biggest problem in expressing the emotions that that he wanted to convey. He explained: "That song has done so much for us and it's a super solid song but it was the first one we wrote. We have grown a lot and have gotten our sound more locked in since that song. It still feels right alongside all the other songs but it definitely is the hardest one to put other tracks around."
  • The song started in a similar way to how many others do. "One day Jesse was at my house and I was playing guitar," Abels recalled to Radio.com. "And he said, 'Hey that's pretty cool, let me record that.' And it just so happened to be 'Sweater Weather.' When we got done writing the song, when it was all said and done we were like 'Okay this is pretty good we should keep writing songs."

    "I think 'Sweater Weather' might've been the best song we'd ever written," Rutherford added, "but I didn't think it was going to be the best song we'd ever write. It was kind of like getting a Platinum record, like a little tap on the butt. 'Good job, keep going.'"

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