The Selfish Giant (song)

On 18 January 2014, the Warner Music Store was updated to include Damon Albarn's new album and its name was revealed – Everyday Robots.

[3] Albarn said in an interview: "I wrote the songs, but Richard Russell was a fantastic editor and did a lot of the atmospheric stuff, so in a sense it's not entirely my record.

"[4] Speaking of her contribution to Everyday Robots, Bat for Lashes' Natasha Khan said: "If I could go back and tell the 15-year-old me that I'd just sang with Damon for his new record, she'd probably wet her pants with excitement, I had such a massive crush on him [...]".

I had a very strong image of the loch and submarines and walking down the main drag in Dunoon after the gig, going to someone's house for a party, and a song came out of it.

The song contains a sample of "The Selfish Giant", composed by Kenny Clayton, written by Oscar Wilde and performed by Robert Morley.

[8] Albarn was the subject of a half-hour episode of The Culture Show broadcast on BBC Two in February 2014, which focused on his previous bands and his current work.

[12] In his track-by-track review, Matthew Horton of NME said: ""Celebrate the passing drugs/Put 'em on the backseat while they're coursing through your blood" – yes, 'The Selfish Giant' is about a nuclear submarine.

), but what 'The Selfish Giant' really sounds like is a refined goodbye over dub bass and piping organ, drifting into a chorus that's devastating in its ordinary heartbreak: "I had a dream you were leaving/It's hard to be a lover when the TV's on/And nothing's in your eyes".

"[13] Dan Cains of The Sunday Times wrote: Featuring the treated voice of Bat for Lashes’ Natasha Khan on its chorus and opening with Albarn essaying a serpentine jazz motif on the piano, this track contains the album's deadliest lyric (“It’s hard to be a lover when the TV’s on and nothing’s in your eyes”), which Albarn fought to have edited out, being later over-ruled by Russell.