"Help I'm Alive" is the lead single from Canadian rock band

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's fourth studio album ''

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''. The song was released digitally on December 23, 2008.

Background

The song was written by Emily Haines and produced by John O'Mahony. Haines said, "This song is the first of many that I wrote on the piano during my time in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. It started out as a ballad but really came to life once we bumped up the tempo. My favorite part of the song is the kick drum sound in the middle section, it sounds like the drums are being played in a cathedral in hell." On November 5, 2008, Metric updated their website with a video on how Haines writes a song. The video follows Haines through Argentina on a soul searching journey to find creativity and herself. "The songs that I wrote here were the simplest and clearest writing that I've done in I think in my whole life", said Haines. "Help I'm Alive" was one of the first songs Haines had written in Buenos Aires. On January 28, 2009, the band made the acoustic version of the single available for download from their website. The acoustic version features Emily Haines on piano and James Shaw on acoustic guitar. This song is featured in the video game '' NBA 2K10'', and in the credits of the video game " Dying Light 2: Stay Human" and was also featured on an episode of ''

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'', on an episode of ''

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'' 's seventh season and in the second episode of '' 90210'' 's third season; also on an episode in the eighth season of ''

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''. The song also played over the closing credits for the 2010 movie ''

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'' as well as during the intro of the 2011 documentary film

Miss Representation ''Miss Representation'' is a 2011 American documentary film written, directed, and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The film explores how mainstream media contributes to the under-representation of women in influential positions by circulating ...

. The song reached number 26 on Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2009. The song was remixed by

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synth player and

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guitarist

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. It was furthermore used in 2014 on the BBC as the music on the trailer to advertise the second series of " Line of Duty". The acoustic version of the song was featured in an online video for the United Network for Organ Sharing in 2016. The video shows a heart transplant recipient carrying out his donor's "bucket list".

Single information

Promo

# "Help I'm Alive" (4.47)

Vinyl

# "Help I'm Alive" # "Help I'm A B-side"

Free download

# 'Help I'm Alive (Acoustic)' (4.49)

In the UK

# 'Help I'm Alive' (4.45) # 'Sugar Mountain (James Shaw's Neil Young Cover)' (5.31)

In the US

# 'Help I'm Alive (edit)' (3.27)

Chart performance

The song peaked on the Canadian Hot 100 at No. 21. Downloads pushed the song onto the

Hot Canadian Digital Singles The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, pr ...

chart, where it peaked at No. 18. The song was also their first ever chart appearance in the United States, where it peaked at No. 17 on the ''Billboard'' Alternative Songs chart and No. 30 on the

Rock Songs Hot Rock & Alternative Songs (formerly known as Rock Songs and Hot Rock Songs) is a record chart published by '' Billboard'' magazine. From its debut on June 20, 2009, through October 13, 2012, the chart ranked the airplay of songs across alterna ...

chart.

Short film

On April 21, 2009, Metric released a "short film set in an imaginary landscape" with "Help I'm Alive" as the soundtrack to their official website and YouTube page. The film was directed by

Deco Dawson Deco Dawson is the professional name of Darryl Kinaschuk, a Ukrainian Canadian experimental filmmaker. He is most noted as a two-time winner of the Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Short Film, winning at the 2001 Toronto ...

, who also edited the band's live DVD, ''Live at Metropolis''. The video features clips from various performances taken from the band's December 2008 "Jingle Bell Rock" tour set to random images, which singer

Emily Haines Emily Savitri Haines (born 25 January 1974) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She is the lead singer, keyboardist and songwriter of the rock band Metric and a member of the musical collective Broken Social Scene. As a solo artist, she has pe ...

compared to "

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on acid".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Help I'm Alive 2008 singles Metric (band) songs Songs written by Emily Haines Song recordings produced by Gavin Brown (musician) 2008 songs