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Hard Feelings (Joe Goddard, Amy Douglas) tell us about the sad bangers that influenced their debut

Singer Amy Douglas and Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard will release their debut album as Hard Feelings on November 5 via Domino, and here’s the new single from it. Fueled by a bobbing electro-disco beat and Douglas’ powerhouse pipes, “Sister Infinity” is another great track off what’s shaping up to be quite a record. The video, which has Joe consulting a mysterious computer program for help on a song, was conceived by Amy, directed by Tim Wagner and owes just a little to Weird Science.

Given that Hard Feelings describe their album as “an opera of sad bangers,” we asked them for a list of sad bangers that influenced the record. Joe and Amy came back to us with 10, ranging from Depeche Mode, ABBA and Donna Summer to Zola Jesus, Eurythmics and Puccini. Check out the list, complete with commentary from Amy, and listen to it in playlist form, below.

https://youtu.be/_IFmPg1OMRA

HARD FEELINGS – 10 SAD BANGERS THAT INFLUENCED OUR DEBUT ALBUM

“Un Bel Di” – Giacomo Puccini
It may seem odd that a dance-centric project would be initially influenced by the heartbreaking, soul scorching aria of Giacomo Puccini’s tragic opera Madame Butterfly but this incredible olympian vocal fete served as my key influence when writing the melody and lyrics for “Holding On Too Long,” our debut single and the first song Joe and I completed for this project.

“Shame” – Eurythmics
No big surprise here that the duo of the sublime geniuses Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart are a HUGE influence on us. High art sophistication mixed with pop songwriting purity? You could never lose. I could have easily put every single banger those two ever created here, but “Shame” has the tone of despair, remorse, disgust and ultimately the sadness of HARD FEELINGS for sure. Not to mention I think that song also speaks to our times. “Shame, on the TV and the media?” More now than ever, though that TV is now the internet. Sure. I have also always wanted to cover it!

“Knowing Me, Knowing You” – ABBA
It would be a near impossibility to have an “opera of sad bangers” without being inspired by ABBA, again a singer/songwriter/production cohesive unit, and arguably the MOTHERS AND FATHERS of the sad banger. ABBA are such a complete statement, and to see them back in action, well, I don’t know anyone that didn’t sort of burst into tears just hearing that they were going to release new music!!! There are few songs as “dig your heart out with a rusty spoon” in ANY genre as this one.

“Walk Away” – Donna Summer
Like The Eurythmics, Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder changed the game, aided by Pete Bellotte and songs that were disco-pop perfection that leaned towards the future. “Walk Away” is a PERFECT sad banger, funky with a strut, but that MELODY and the HOOK? Tear inducing.

“Dangerous Days” – Zola Jesus
Oh this song. Rip your heart clean out of your chest, right? “You never were the one for us.” Whoever that is? Pity their soul.

“It Doesn’t Matter Two” – Depeche Mode
I think it’s safe to say these dudes know their way around MANY a sad banger, and I’m almost cheating with this one, cause it’s not so much a song, or even a banger, as a MOMENT, but that moment is PIERCING and unforgettable on an album LADEN with sad bangers, this being Black Celebration. This is here and gone as fast as Little Wing, but when it’s gone, you are LEVELED.

“Out For You” (Each Other Remix) – Birds of Pandaemonium
It’s time for the family affair part of our story. In addition to this being a really bonafide wistful sad banger, much in the way Zola Jesus’s “Dangerous Days” is, it is the creation of Tim Wagner, CEO of Brooklyn label Our Starry Universe. More relatedly? He is the man with whom I wrote “Never Saw It Coming” and he produced it. It’s that creation that led me to Joe in the first place! Tim also directed and helped to create it’s video, and subsequently the video for our new single “Sister Infinity” and if THAT weren’t enough? His band, Birds of Pandaemonium, was blessed with a remix by Each Other, featuring the great Justin Strauss, who is ALSO a member of Extra Credit, with Marcus Marr and guess who? JOE GODDARD!

“Seconds” – Human League
Amazing that when Martyn Ware departed, and they went a wee more pop, they banged their hardest, but it’s true! Thing bout “Seconds” is that for me this is a hearkening back to the Martyn Ware “Being Boiled” Human League so as to remind of their sonic past, and it’s a really claustrophobic, tense, taut lil number.

“Missing”(Todd Terry Remix) – Everything But The Girl 
It’s all but ubiquitous with the ’90s, perhaps even the parts you roll your eyes at, but with good reason. The combination of the celestial haunting tones of Tracey Thorn’s vocals are given the right loft with House Legend Todd Terry.

Absolutely any song Robyn has ever done
EVEN KONICHIWA BITCHES! QUEEN OF THE SAD BANGERS!

You can listen to this as a Spotify Playlist as well: