Bed of Nails

Album: Smother (2011)
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Songfacts®:

  • British indie rock band Wild Beasts' third album Two Dancers features a more synth-oriented sound than their previous two releases. However, the band got through several synthesizers whilst recording. Bassist Tom Fleming explained to Drowned In Sound: "The synth used on this track was then to die immediately after, and this is its only legacy." Fleming added that the synth they played for "Reach a Little Further" also "died after the event."
  • The song sees the narrator listing the sacrifices he'll make for his lover. Fleming told the story of the song to Drowned in Sound: "One of the first we wrote, in a demo session that predated the album by about eight months. Almost all of the sounds on this track are so-called "real" instruments, treated and filtered to sound unfamiliar. This is a playful song, and if I may, a bit of a disco banger, or at least as close to one as we dared."
  • Wild Beasts are well known for their liberal use of literary references, and this song sees them working two classic tragedies, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Shakespeare's Hamlet into the lyric.

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