"Kemosabe" is a song by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and sub ...

band

Everything Everything Everything Everything are an English art rock band from Manchester that formed in late 2007. Noted for their eclectic sound and complex, sociopolitical lyrics, the band have released six albums to date – 2010's '' Man Alive'', 2013's '' Arc'' ...

. The track was released in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

on 14 January 2013 as the second single from the band's second studio album, ''

Arc ARC may refer to: Business * Aircraft Radio Corporation, a major avionics manufacturer from the 1920s to the '50s * Airlines Reporting Corporation, an airline-owned company that provides ticket distribution, reporting, and settlement services * ...

'' (2013). The track received its first play on 8 November 2012, having been selected as

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reid Lowe (born 7 August 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence thro ...

's ''Hottest Record in the World''.

Track listing

Charts

Chart performance

For the chart week dated 26 January 2013, "Kemosabe" debuted at number forty-eight on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

—marking the band's second top one hundred entry after "

Cough Cough "Cough Cough" is a song from British people, British indie pop band Everything Everything. The track was released in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2012 as the lead single from the band's second studio album, ''Arc (Everything Everything albu ...

" (#37, 2012).

Composition

"Kemosabe" plays at 87 beats per minute with a

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

in common time, and is notable for its multiple key changes,

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...

vocals, and syncopated rhythms. A staccato

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

pattern is also prevalent throughout the song.

Jonathan Higgs Jonathan Joseph Higgs (born 23 February 1985) is an English singer, songwriter, filmmaker, director and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the frontman of the art rock band Everything Everything, with whom he has released six studio albu ...

' vocal range spans from B♭3 to C#5, and is accompanied by backing vocals. In an interview, band members described the song as being similar to those on their debut album, Man Alive. Higgs also spoke about the meaning of the song, noting, "It’s about turbulent relationships and feeling alone even if you are with somebody. It’s playing off the

Lone Ranger The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture. He first appeared in 1933 in ...

and his relationship with Tonto. The fact that he’s the Lone Ranger despite – well, he’s always been with Tonto. I always thought that was funny and a bit weird. And I liked the language: Yippeekayay and Hiyo Silver and Kemosabe." In other interviews, Higgs has expressed discomfort when asked about the song's meaning.

Credits and personnel

;Recording and mixing *Recorded at RAK Studios,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

; Angelic Studios, Halse; Muttley Ranch, London; Jonathan's Flat,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

; The Garden, London; Crotch Int. Studios,

Gilsland Gilsland is a village in northern England about west of Hexham, and about east of Carlisle, which straddles the border between Cumbria and Northumberland. The village provides an amenity centre for visitors touring Hadrian's Wall and other f ...

mixed at Muttley Ranch, London. ;Personnel *

Songwriting A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

- Jonathan Higgs *

Production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

- David Kosten, Everything Everything *

Recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

- Mo Hauseler, Tom A.D. Fuller, David Kosten *Assistant Engineering - Mike Horner, Pete Prokopiw * Mixing - David Kosten *Mastering - John Davis (at Metropolis Mastering) * Instrumenting - Jonathan Higgs, Jeremy Pritchard, Alex Robertshaw, Michael Spearman Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Arc'', RCA Records, UMP.

Release history

References

{{authority control 2013 singles Everything Everything songs Songs written by Jonathan Higgs 2012 songs RCA Records singles