"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. They are the child of musician Sting and actress Trudie Styler. They began their music career at a young age and signed a record deal with Island Records ...

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 an ...

''. Produced by

Klas Åhlund Klas Frans Åhlund (born 11 April 1972) is a Swedish songwriter and producer. He is also a member of the band Teddybears along with Patrik Arve and his brother Joakim Åhlund. He is the brother of musician Joakim Åhlund who is a member of the Sw ...

, 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 surface, compar ...

released the following day. The single was remixed by

La Roux La Roux ( ) is an English synth-pop act formed in 2008 by singer Elly Jackson and record producer Ben Langmaid. The act's debut album '' La Roux'' (2009) was a critical and commercial success, winning a Grammy Award and producing hit singles s ...

and

Sub Focus Nicolaas Douwma (born 13 April 1982), better known by his stage name Sub Focus, is an English DJ, music producer, songwriter and sound engineer. He has been releasing records since 2003. On 12 October 2009, he released his self-titled debut ...

, 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 Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

'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 they relate 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 ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'', Sumner explained that the song is not about their own feelings so much as those of the title character in the 2008

Pixar Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney ...

movie ''

WALL-E ''WALL-E'' (stylized with an interpunct as ''WALL·E'') is a 2008 American animated Romance film, romantic science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, produced b ...

''.

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 initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...

''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 an ...

'' referred to the song's "glorious

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

" as "ubiquitous", adding that " e

dystopia A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmen ...

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, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' commented that the track "recreates

The Killers The Killers are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2001 by Brandon Flowers (lead vocals, keyboards, bass) and Dave Keuning (lead guitar, backing vocals). After the band went through a number of short-term bas ...

' 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 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 an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

'' 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 their hands.

Track listing

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

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

remix) – 4:16 #"Selfmachine" ( Chew Fu remix) – 6:26 #"Selfmachine" (Pangea remix) – 4:23 #"Selfmachine" (

Jakwob James Edward Jacob (born 28 March 1989), better known by his stage name Jakwob, is a British music producer, songwriter, DJ and composer. Early life Jacob was born in Hereford and grew up in Lincoln. His parents are Anglo Indian and Scottish ...

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 Island Records singles I Blame Coco songs Songs written by Klas Åhlund 2009 songs