Alt-J Samples Miley Cyrus, We Can't Stop Listening
"I'm a female rebel."
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It seems Alt-J has come down with a case of BANGERZ fever. The English indie rock band has sampled Miley Cyrus' "4x4," in a new track off their forthcoming album This Is All Yours called "Hunger Of The Pine." The electro track turns Cyrus' sound on its head, looping the line "I'm a female rebel," against bold, low-tempo instrumentals. The sample is a burst of fire amidst the sullen ballad, whose lyrics revolve around the pain of longing for someone.
"[It's] composed entirely of new and spontaneous ideas that arose during writing sessions for the second album," Alt-J's Gus Unger-Hamilton told NPR. "It was written very quickly using some guitar chords and sounds being layered on Ableton, and seemed to signal a bit of a new sound for us. The lyrics mainly suggest the idea that missing someone — pining — can be a physical pain much like hunger."
Considering that Alt-J was awarded a Mercury Prize for their debut album An Awesome Wave, this is a pretty cool nod from the Brit blokes — Miley, you get it bae! Cyrus has previously used Alt-J's "Fitzpleasure" in her live BANGERZ shows. Perhaps, this is the beginning of a beautiful, synth-heavy kinship between the band and pop star.
This Is All Yours drops on September 22.
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Lauren Valenti is Vogue’s former senior beauty editor. Her work has also appeared on ELLE.com, MarieClaire.com, and in In Style. She graduated with a liberal arts degree from Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts, with a concentration on Culture and Media Studies and a minor in Journalism.
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