Take It Out On Me

Album: Friends (2016)
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Songfacts®:

  • The lead single from Friends, this was inspired by a madcap social networker. Bassist Charles Cave explained:

    "Right up until we recorded the song it was called '89-1-3'. It was inspired by a lunatic on Instagram who kept commenting on a friend's photos in pseudo-Biblical verse. From his profile, I discovered he lived in a remote cabin with a rough-looking dog. He posted weird videos in which he quoted random numbers.

    As a challenge, I turned them in to a song. The only problem was that it went so well everyone said it should be the first single, so I relented and gave the chorus real lyrics."
  • The video was shot by Mexican feature film director David Pablos, who won for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the Ariel Awards in Mexico for Las Elegidas.

    The NSFW clip is set in Mexico and features strong religious imagery, as well as a cameo from White Lies frontman Harry McVeigh. Pablo explained: "The music video for 'Take It Out On Me' is a reinterpretation of traditional stories of saints, in modern day Tijuana, mixed with elements from the film Theorem by Pier Paolo Pasolini. A little bit of dark humour and that's the final result!"

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