"Selfmachine" is a song by the English band

I Blame Coco Eliot Paulina Sumner (born 30 July 1990) is an English singer, songwriter and actor. Career I Blame Coco Sumner began writing songs at the age of 15, and signed a multi-record deal with Island Records at age 17. They spent six months writing ...

from their first album, ''

The Constant "The Constant" is the fifth episode of the fourth season of the American Broadcasting Company's (ABC) serial drama television series ''Lost'', and the 77th episode overall. It was broadcast on February 28, 2008, on ABC in the United States and ...

''. Produced by Klas Åhlund, it was released as the album's second single in digital format on 11 July 2010, with a

12" vinyl The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

released the following day. The single was remixed by La Roux and

Sub Focus Nicolaas Douwma (born 13 April 1982), better known by his stage name Sub Focus, is an English DJ, record producer, songwriter, musician and sound engineer from Guildford, Surrey. He has been releasing records since 2003. On 12 October 2009, ...

, and was added to

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, ...

's B List playlist on 9 June 2010. The track was used in the eighteenth episode of the fourth season of ''Gossip Girl'', titled "The Kids Stay in the Picture", broadcast on 18 April 2011.

Background

"Selfmachine" is a song about alienation. The lead singer, Coco Sumner, told ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' that she relates to the loneliness of the robot described in the song, saying, "This little robot can't empathise with anything but himself, so he feels really sorry for himself. Then everyone leaves him because he is selfish, but he can't help it, because he is just a robot and programmed that way." In an interview with the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'', Sumner explained that the song is not about her own feelings so much as those of the title character in the 2008 Pixar movie '' WALL-E''.

Critical reception

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...

''s Nick Levine awarded the song four out of five stars, calling it "a percolating electropop ditty with intriguing lyrics about a 'lonely robot in a wasteland', a nice bit of SAW-style vocal trickery—yes, really!—and a chorus melody that flirts with brilliance." Ben Weisz of ''

musicOMH MusicOMH (stylized as musicOMH) is a London-based online music magazine which publishes independent reviews, features and interviews from across all genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B. History MusicOMH was founded and launched by ...

'' referred to the song's "glorious

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

" as "ubiquitous", adding that " e

dystopia A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

n depth to the lyrics is rarely encountered in something so catchy and danceable." Alex Denney of the ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' commented that the track "recreates

The Killers The Killers are an American rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingd ...

' clubby output, right down to the twinkly smattering of keys".

Commercial performance

Having been predicted to debut within the top forty by ''Digital Spy'', "Selfmachine" entered 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 ...

at number 64 on 18 July 2010, spending a single week in the top 100. In Germany, the single peaked at number 56 and spent ten weeks on the chart.

Music video

The music video for "Selfmachine", directed by Alex Smith, was premiered on ''

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

'' on 7 June 2010. It shows Sumner and a group of teenagers performing, playing around in an empty, waterless swimming pool. Throughout the video, the teenagers are seen playing with a translucent sheet which is propelled into the air at various points. In the latter half of the video, Sumner is seen in slow motion releasing water from her hands.

Track listing

*;UK iTunes single #"Selfmachine" – 3:54 #"Selfmachine" (

remix) – 4:09 *;UK iTunes remix EP #"Selfmachine" ( La Roux remix) – 4:16 #"Selfmachine" (

Chew Fu Chew Fu is a New York-based electronic record producer, remixer and DJ, born in the Netherlands. He is best known for his official refixes for pop artists including Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Timbaland, Mariah Carey, Far East Movement and Robyn and his ...

remix) – 6:26 #"Selfmachine" (Pangea remix) – 4:23 #"Selfmachine" ( Jakwob remix) – 5:03 *;UK 12" single :A1. "Selfmachine" – 3:54 :A2. "Selfmachine" (Sub Focus remix) – 4:09 :B1. "Stunned" (Coco Sumner, Paddy Byrne, Sam Dixon) – 3:36 :B2. "Selfmachine" (La Roux remix) – 4:16

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2010 singles I Blame Coco songs Island Records singles Songs written by Klas Åhlund 2009 songs