Habits (Stay High)

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Habits (Stay High)
Cover
Tove Lo
publication March 15, 2013
December 6, 2013 (re-release)
length 3:28
Genre (s) Electro pop
text Tove Lo , Ludvig Söderberg, Jakob Jerlström
Publisher (s) Universal Music
album Truth Serum (EP)
Queen of the Clouds

Habits (Stay High) is a song by the Swedish songwriter and singer Tove Lo in collaboration with the producer duo "The Struts", consisting of Ludvig Söderberg and Jakob Jerlström. The song, influenced by electro-pop , was released on March 15, 2013 by the singer on YouTube and on December 6, 2013 by the major label Universal Music as an extended play "Truth Serum" and later on her first studio album "Queen of the Clouds" ( 2014) published. The English-language song title "Habits (Stay High)" means " habits (to remain intoxicated)".

history

Ludvig Söderberg and Jakob Jerlström composed the song together with Lo and produced it under the production name “The Struts”. On March 25, 2013, the singer released the song under the title "Habits" as her second single. After Lo signed a deal with Universal Music , the song was re-released on December 6, 2013 under the title Habits (Stay High), both as the second single from “Truth Serum” and as the lead single from “Queen of the Cloud ". Musically, the song belongs to the pop and electropop category , it has elements of minimal music and upbeat instrumentation. The lyrics are about the singer's attempt to forget a failed relationship through alcoholic intoxication and hedonistic pleasures. As a result, both music critics and Lo himself noted a certain contrast between the pop-like composition and the melancholy lyrics.

"Habits (Stay High)" received largely positive reviews in terms of composition and lyrics. The song became an insider tip that didn't hit the music charts until 2014 , a year after its original release. On the Billboard Hot 100 , the song reached number 3 in the United States and became the highest ranking by a Swedish artist since the song The Sign by Swedish pop group Ace of Base , which reached number 1 in 1994 . The song sold over 2.6 million in the United States and was awarded five platinum awards by its Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It topped the charts in the Netherlands , Poland , France and Romania and reached top 10 positions in Austria, Canada, France and Switzerland, among others.

The directors of "Motellet Film" shot two music videos for the song. The first version was released on March 15, 2013 and shows the singer having a tea party, during which she and her guests get drunk. When YouTube was viewed half a million times before the video one year after publication of the video portal has been removed. The second version was filmed for three days in a Swedish club and shows Lo partying excessively with her friends. Tove Lo sang the song at music festivals such as " South by Southwest " and the "Hangout Music Festival" and put it on the setlist of their first tour "Queen of the Clouds Tour" in 2015. The song won the 2015 Grammies in Sweden "In the" Song of the Year "category. “Habits (Stay High)” was covered by American actor Vin Diesel , among others , whose performance paid homage to his late friend Paul Walker . The US-American pop singer Kelly Clarkson sang the song in 2015 on her "Piece by Piece Tour".

Emergence

The song was composed by Tove Lo together with Ludvig Söderberg and Jakob Jerlström and produced by the latter two under the production name “The Struts”. According to Tove Lo, "Habits (Stay High)" is the song from the EP "Truth Serum" that "means most to her" as it is "the most honest" and the writing of the same is "huge" to her was. Originally, the stanzas come from a poem Lo wrote when she was having a "really bad time" in a relationship. Los Freund had joined a Buddhist movement , which they refused and led to the separation.

“I was heartbroken. I was trying to get over someone, trying various ways to numb the pain and it's pretty much a very narrative description of that time, really. So it is, you have all the like, people listen to it in different ways I guess, some people only hear the kind of party side of the song, the fun, quirky stuff, but there's definitely the undertone of the painful thing that I 'm actually going through in it. So it came from that - just trying to numb the pain, but the pain's obviously still there. "

“My heart was broken. I've been trying to get over someone, I've tried different ways to numb the pain, and that's pretty much a very narrative paraphrase of that time, really. It is like that, you have all that sort of thing, people understand it in different ways, I think, some just hear the party side of the song, the pleasure, the bizarre stuff, but there is quite an undertone of the painful thing I actually do in it live through. That's where it comes from - just numbing the pain, but of course the pain is still there. "

A few months after the breakup, she stayed with a friend during Hurricane Sandy in 2012 in New York City . In his apartment, the electricity and heating went out, so Lo moved to a friend's studio in Midtown Manhattan , where she composed the chorus . On December 11, 2012, the singer published on Facebook that she “did not get to finish too much” in New York and that she was working with “The Struts” in the music studio in Sweden . The singer re-recorded her vocals, but opted for the version from the demo recording , as it was "really coming from the heart".

"The Struts" wrote, produced and programmed the track and played the sheet music. Filip Runesson played the stringed instruments , Lars Norgren did the mixing and Björn Engelmann did the mastering . In an interview with Coup de Main magazine, Lo said that while writing the song she thought about “what would be the best possible way out of these difficult times. It's a relief just to think 'fuck everything' for a while. We all have to be so perfect all the time, and absolutely no one can do that. ”In an interview with the US online newspaper The Huffington Post , the singer confessed that she got over the breakup while writing the song.

According to Adam R. Holz from "Plugged In", Lo sings in the Bridge about "knowing - on a certain level - how empty and self-extinguishing your decisions really are":

"Staying in my play pretend
Where the fun ain't got no end
Can't go home alone again
Need someone to numb the pain."

composition

After specifying "Musicnotes.com" the song in which was key H - major in 4/4-stroke composed with a tempo of 110 beats per minute as for dance-pop is common.

 {\ tempo 4 = 110 \ key bes \ major \ time 4/4 r8 f'8 f'8 f'8 g'8 f'8 d'8 c'8 d'4 f'4 g'8 f'8 d'8 c'8 d'4 f'8 d'8 g'8 f'8 d'8 c'8 f'4 g'4 bes8 bes8 c'8 d'8} \ addlyrics {I eat my din - - ner in my bath - tub, then I go to sex clubs, _ watch - ing freak - y peo - ple get - tin it on.}

The song has a minimal and upbeat electronic instrumentation, which is composed of drums , electric bass , accompaniment and lead vocals. Tove Los vocal range ranges from B 3 to C 5 . Furthermore, the tone sequence of the Millennial Whoops is used.

Reviews noted a stark contrast between the lyrics and the composition. Carrie Battan of the English-language music website Pitchfork stated that the song “ contrasts a gigantic hook line and a chorus with snappy verses that are enriched with subtle, often strange imagery: Nilsson, who is eating her meal in the bathtub, drunk nibbles and seduce fathers in playgrounds. ”The editor Chris Jordan described the song in the American daily“ Ashbury Park Press ”as a“ synth-based pop song with a peppy chorus, ”but notes that the content of the Lyrics have similarities with rock 'n' roll music. Jia from “All Things Go” says that the verses are “confusing, depraved lyrics with a sugar-sweet medody and a resolute beat”. The singer herself admitted, “I love the contrast of being happier, anything to dance your tears away with. You can feel the text and the darkness and sadness, but when you combine them, add a little black humor as well. I like to dance to it and then listen to what I'm singing. It's a crazy, double reaction. "

In the chorus , Lo sings about her drug abuse :

"You're gone and I gotta stay high
All the time, to keep you off my mind."

"You left and I stay intoxicated
all the time to get you out of my head."

The singer told the Internet radio "iHeartRadio" that the bridge was her preferred place in the song because "it expresses exactly what the song is about for me."

publication

On March 13, 2013, the singer published the illustration of the song with the note "soon" ("soon") on her Facebook user account. Two days later she released the song under the title "Habits". After “Love Ballade”, “Habits” was her second self-released single.

The song caught the attention of some music blogs, which increased the number of Los followers.

The Welsh singer Marina and the Diamonds and the New Zealand musician Lorde praised the song on their Twitter account. In May 2013, the US pop duo MS MR listed the song on their mixtape "Track Addict Vol. III" on the online music service SoundCloud .

On December 6, 2013 Universal Music released the song a second time under the extended title "Habits (Stay High)" as the second single from the EP "Truth Serum". On June 12, 2014, the song was sent to American contemporary hit radios .

Music videos

First version

On February 1, 2013, Motellet Film announced on the micro-blogging service Twitter that they were making a music video for Tove Lo. On February 27, the film studio announced the end of filming and posted a photo of Lo on the set . The duo shot the video while the singer co-directed and wrote the script . The website of the Swedish television broadcaster Sveriges Television released the music video on March 15, 2013, while the singer posted it on her YouTube channel two days later.

The music video begins with the hungover singer's memories and shows brief shots of whiskey , a shoe in a chandelier, and a man she makes out with. She goes to a bar to buy a bottle of whiskey and has it with a man. In the following scene, Tove Lo can be seen having a tea party with four women and waitresses, during which champagne is drunk between a display of cake and cupcakes . The video flashes white and shows glimpses into the imaginations of the other women present. The increasingly drunk Lo takes off her shirt, smears cake on her face, pours champagne over herself and begins to dance with her guests and the waitresses. By the end of the video, she is at home and vomits into a sink. Throughout the video there are scenes of Lo in a dark room , where mascara is oozing from her eyes and she is chewing gum, eating melted ice cream and smoking a cigarette.

Greg White of "So So Gay" said the music video was "an authentic visual representation of the pain and behavior behind the song" while Jenss Drunk of "Pigeons and Planes" called it "a beautiful mess" designated. Scandipop describes the video as "a glamorous snapshot of the very unglamorous separation-induced immersion in self-destruction that Tove's verses abound." In mid-March 2014, the YouTube video had over half a million views, but the video was taken offline again in the same month.

Second version

The second music video for "Habits (Stay High)" was again shot by Motellet Film . The location was in a club in Sweden where the singer spent three days with her three friends Vanessa, Lone and Johan, who were supposed to "have some alcoholic drinks and make out" with Lo. As a result, the two directors shot a large number of unsolicited takes , as there were no explicit stage directions . In the music video, the singer wanted to show “those kinds of nights when things can get out of control” and “slowly pull the viewer into this emotional turmoil” that characterizes the lyrics.

Tove Lo found filming difficult and arduous as she had to walk around for three days with 10kg camera gear tied around her waist and the lens pointed at her face. It was also exhausting to visualize the pain she felt while writing the song. Late in the filming, when Lo was already drunk and exhausted, she went into a toilet cubicle. She explained, “I was tired and tired and it was hard shooting and I just wanted to go to the bathroom and be alone. There were no people around and I was really alone in the cabin. I just sat there and thought about everything that had happened to me during that time. The tears just came. ”She also admitted that she barely remembered half of the filming.

On February 19, 2014, she posted a teaser of the music video on her Facebook user account. On March 17th, 2014 the music video was published on Los Vevo -Channel on YouTube, and the next day it was listed in the iTunes Store . As of January 2017, the video had been viewed over 216 million times.

The music video begins with a closeup of Lo waking up in her friends' bed after a night of partying. She returns to her apartment, recovers from the hangover, prepares for the upcoming party night and tries on several clothes in front of the mirror. She takes the subway to Stockholm's Södermalm district , eats, and meets up with her friends in a stretch limousine . Together they go first to a bar and then to a club, play pool, get drunk and make out with each other. The singer goes to the toilet alone and starts crying. She returns home in the taxi and falls into bed. The whole thing is shot in the style of a selfie video. Throughout the video there are scenes in which Lo looks into the camera and sings the lyrics in sync with the lips, as well as some detailed shots of alcoholic beverages.

review

Thomas Kühnrich judges JoinMusic: “Tove Los 'Habits' is not just a cleverly crafted pop song. In the accompanying video, the Swedish singer and songwriter portrays herself so relentlessly as a lovesick victim that your heart is touched. "According to the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung ," the song is a hymn for everyone who is in the pain of separation or for him have already experienced ".

Miles Raymer of the US magazine Entertainment Weekly called the cinematic implementation of the song a "clever" video, as "it highlights Los intricately complicated image as a party girl by recreating some of the debauchery from the song's lyrics, as well as their aftermath". Caitlin White of Canadian online magazine Noisey judged that the "new video from Habits shows the dark side of coping with a lost love" and that it " may be reminiscent of Janis Joplin ". Sonja Mann criticizes the video in the women's magazine “Bustle” as “kind of boring” (“kind of boring”). Samantha Lizzio rated the video as number five in her list of the 20 best videos of the US TV channel VH1 of 2014. According to Patricia Battle on NDR , the singer “specializes in her lyrics on separation pain and lovesickness”, which spreads melodies on the other hand “a good mood”, so that “synth sounds à la Daft Punk ” meet a “soft pop voice”.

Nominations and Awards

The employees of "The Line of Best Fit" rated "Habits (Stay High)" as number 6 on their list of the 50 best songs of 2013 and wrote that it was "certainly one of the most vital pop songs of the year". The music magazine Rolling Stone placed "Habits (Stay High)" at number 23 on its list of the 50 best songs of 2014 and compared the composition of the " Ode to Self-Medication " with the music of Lorde and the lyrics with those of the US American pop singer Kesha . Chris Jordan of "Asbury Park Press" considers the song one of the best of the year and stated that "it was refreshing to hear the debauchery described". Chris deVille from the internet publication “Stereogum” rated the song as number 26 on their list of the 50 best pop songs of 2014 and wrote: “For a song that derives much of its appeal from being out of control and excessive exaggeration 'Habits' is a work of extreme self-confidence and precision by a pop singer with a bright future. ” The song was named one of the“ ASCAP Pop Music Awards ”by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) most played award of 2014. At the "iHeartRadio Music Awards" the song was nominated in the "Best Lyrics" category, but was subject to the song Blank Space by Taylor Swift .

The music video won the 2014 VEVO Hot This Year Awards as “Best Alternative / Rock Video”.

Chart placements

Charts Top ranking Weeks
Chart placements
Germany (GfK) Germany (GfK) 14th (53 weeks) 53
Austria (Ö3) Austria (Ö3) 3 (42 weeks) 42
Sweden (GLF) Sweden (GLF) 13 (70 weeks) 70
Switzerland (IFPI) Switzerland (IFPI) 3 (44 weeks) 44
United States (Billboard) United States (Billboard) 3 (39 weeks) 39
United Kingdom (OCC) United Kingdom (OCC) 6th (33 weeks) 33

Web links

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