B-side "Stunned" Length 3:49 | Recorded 2009 | |
Released 11 July 2010 (2010-07-11) Format Digital download
12" single Genre Synthpop
indie rock
new wave | ||
"Self Machine" is a song by English band I Blame Coco from their debut album, The Constant. Produced by Klas Åhlund, it was released as the album's second single in digital format on 11 July 2010, with a 12" vinyl released the following day. The single was remixed by the likes of La Roux and Sub Focus, and was added to BBC Radio 1's B List playlist on 9 June 2010. The track was featured in the eighteenth of the fourth season of Gossip Girl, titled "The Kids Stay in the Picture" and aired 18 April 2011.
Contents
Background
"Self Machine" is a song about alienation; lead singer Coco Sumner told The Independent 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, Sumner explained that the song is not about her own feelings so much as those of the Pixar character WALL-E.
Critical reception
Digital Spy'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 referred to the song's "glorious synth-pop" as "ubiquitous", adding that "[t]he dystopian depth to the lyrics is rarely encountered in something so catchy and danceable." Alex Denney of the NME commented that the track "recreates The Killers' clubby output, right down to the twinkly smattering of keys."
Commercial performance
Having been predicted to debut within the top forty by Digital Spy, "Self Machine" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number sixty-four on 18 July 2010, spending a single week in the top 100. In Germany, the single peaked at number fifty-six and spent ten weeks on the chart.
Music video
The music video for "Selfmachine", directed by Alex Smith, premiered on YouTube on 7 June 2010. It features 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 stages too. In the latter half of the video, Sumner is seen in slow motion releasing water from her hands.