Leave It Alone (Broken Bells song)

Last updated
"Leave It Alone"
Broken Bells - "Leave It Alone".jpg
Promotional single by Broken Bells
ReleasedFebruary 4, 2014 (2014-02-04)
Recorded2012-13
Genre Alternative rock
Length5:30
Label Columbia
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s) Danger Mouse
Broken Bells singles chronology
Perfect World
(2014)
Leave It Alone
(2014)
It's That Talk Again
(2015)

"Leave It Alone" is a song written by James Mercer and Brian Burton of the American alternative rock band Broken Bells. It was originally recorded by the band for their second studio album, After the Disco , where it appears as the fourth track on the album. A "Leave It Alone" promotional single was released for streaming on the Australian branch of commercial music streaming service Spotify on February 4, 2014, becoming the fourth release by the band in promotion of After the Disco, after singles "Holding on for Life", "After the Disco" and promotional single "Perfect World". The song can be found in the soundtrack of the movie Miss You Already starring Toni Collette and Drew Barrymore. The song is a playable track in the music video game Guitar Hero Live.

James Mercer (musician) American guitarist and musician

James Russell Mercer is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and musician. He is the founder, vocalist, lead singer-songwriter, and sole remaining original member of the indie rock group The Shins. In 2009, Mercer and producer Danger Mouse formed the side project Broken Bells, for which they released a self-titled album in March 2010, followed by After the Disco in 2014. Mercer also has acted, appearing in Matt McCormick's feature film Some Days Are Better Than Others, which premiered in 2010.

Danger Mouse (musician) American musician, songwriter and producer

Brian Joseph Burton, better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from The Beatles' The Beatles .

Alternative rock is a style of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1980s. In this instance, the word "alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream rock music. The term's original meaning was broader, referring to a generation of musicians unified by their collective debt to either the musical style or simply the independent, DIY ethos of punk rock, which in the late 1970s laid the groundwork for alternative music. At times, "alternative" has been used as a catch-all description for music from underground rock artists that receives mainstream recognition, or for any music, whether rock or not, that is seen to be descended from punk rock. Although the genre evolved in the late 1970s and 1980s, music anticipating the sound of the genre can be found as early as the 1960s, with bands such as The Velvet Underground and artists such as Syd Barrett.

Contents

Music video

No music video for "Leave It Alone" is known to be in production. However, a lyric video, reflecting the art style of the After the Disco short film series and featuring the band's "signature pink aesthetic", was premiered on music video hosting service Vevo on February 4, 2014, the day of After the Disco's release in the United States. [1]

A short film is any motion picture not long enough to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits". In the United States, short films were generally termed short subjects from the 1920s into the 1970s when confined to two 35mm reels or less, and featurettes for a film of three or four reels. "Short" was an abbreviation for either term.

A music video is a short film that integrates a song with imagery, and is produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. There are also cases where songs are used in tie-in marketing campaigns that allow them to become more than just a song. Tie-ins and merchandising can be used for toys or for food or other products. Although the origins of the music video date back to musical short films that first appeared in the 1920s, they again came into prominence in the 1980s when the channel MTV based their format around the medium. Prior to the 1980s, these kinds of videos were described by various terms including "illustrated song", "filmed insert", "promotional (promo) film", "promotional clip", "promotional video", "song video", "song clip" or "film clip".

Vevo is an American multinational video hosting service founded on June 16, 2009, as a joint venture among three major record companies: Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment (SME) and EMI. In August 2016, Warner Music Group (WMG), the third-largest record company, agreed to license premium videos from its artists onto Vevo.

Track listing

Spotify promotional single
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Leave It Alone"Burton5:31

Personnel

Adapted from After the Disco liner notes. [2]

Release history

CountryDateFormatLabelCatalog no.
Australia [3] February 4, 2014 Stream Columbia Records none

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References

  1. Newman, Melinda. "Broken Bells' lyric video for 'Leave It Alone' sums up the song's isolation". Hitfix. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  2. After the Disco (liner notes). Broken Bells. Columbia Records. 2014.CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. "Leave It Alone by Broken Bells". Spotify. Archived from the original on February 8, 2014. Retrieved February 8, 2014.