Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) (song)

Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
Single by Florence + The Machine
Released	June 21, 2009
Writer(s)	Florence Welch Paul Epworth Elizabeth Bougatsos Brian DeGraw Joshua Deutsch Timothy DeWit
Producer(s)	Paul Epworth
Genre	baroque pop, indie rock, folk rock
Length	3:52 (see official versions)
Album
Label	Island Moshi Moshi
Singles chronology
Previous	Dog Days Are Over
Current	Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
Next	Drumming Song
Lungs chronology
"Dog Days Are Over"
"I’m Not Calling You a Liar"
Music Video

"Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" is the second track and third single from Florence and the Machine’s debut album, Lungs.

Background

"Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" features Florence Welch's voice overdubbed with so many harmonies she sounds like a massed choir of one. She confessed to The Independent: "The guy who mixed it nearly had a nervous breakdown."

The song was co-written by Welch together with Paul Epworth who also produced the song which was recorded by Mark Rankin. The track features Tom Monger on harp and Robert Ackroyd on guitar. During the verses, the song features some of the melody and lyrics (e.g. "How quickly the glamour fades") from Gang Gang Dance's song "House Jam".

Florence described her inspiration behind the song:

“I'd written all these dark songs, and the label suggested we should have something that was a bit more upbeat. In the process of trying to do that, I realised maybe I was sacrificing something. So I had a really upbeat piano and drums, but the lyrics that came out were 'This is the gift/It comes with a price/ Who is the lamb/And who is the knife?' The rabbit heart is a reference to fear. I'm so afraid of what's about to happen. Of being in the spotlight.”

As part of the single's promotion, the band performed the song on The Jonathan Ross Show as well as in BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. The single was also performed at numerous festivals across the United Kingdom throughout 2009, including Glastonbury, Electric Picnic, Brighton, T in the Park, Bestival and Reading, among others.

The song was also featured as BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe's "Single of the Week".

Official versions

• Album version - 3:52
• Jamie T and Ben Bones Lionheart Remix - 4:50
• Leo Zero Remix - 8:05
• An Offering (Rabbit Heart demo) - 3:50

Lyrics

The looking glass, so shiny and new
How quickly the glamour fades
I start spinning, slipping out of time
Was that the wrong pill to take? (Raise it up)

You made a deal, and now it seems you have to offer up
But will it ever be enough? (Raise it up, raise it up)
It's not enough (Raise it up, raise it up)

Here I am, a rabbit hearted girl
Frozen in the headlights
It seems I've made the final sacrifice

We raise it up, this offering
We raise it up

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

I look around, but I can't find you (raise it up)
If only I could see your face (raise it up)
Instead of rushing towards the skyline (raise it up)
I wish that I could just be brave

I must become a lion hearted girl
Ready for a fight
Before I make the final sacrifice

We raise it up, this offering
We raise it up

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

Raise it up, raise it up
Raise it up, raise it up

And in the spring I shed my skin
And it blows away with the changing wind
The waters turn from blue to red
As towards the sky I offer it

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

This is a gift, it comes with a price
Who is the lamb and who is the knife?
Midas is king and he holds me so tight
And turns me to gold in the sunlight

This is a gift

Music video

The music video for "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" was directed by Tom Beard and Queens of Noize's Tabitha. It was shot on location at Painshill Park in Cobham, Surrey on May 6, 2009. Welch told NME that the video shoot had "a twisted mid summer night's dream feel to it." The video premiered on YouTube on May 14, 2009.

The video starts in a field with a piece of cloth being lifted from in front of Welch's face, before she begins spinning as two girls follow her. The girls then start to dance all around the field, you see a harp being played and then Welch joins in the dancing, doing the bunny hop. Welch sits at a table with six other people, including a man wearing a top hat, there are pig heads served on a plate. Welch and the other six people throw the food on the floor and begin to dance. Welch lies down on the table and the other people lift up the sides to make it into a coffin. The people carry the coffin into the river and it drifts away as the video ends.

Critical reception

"Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" received critical acclaim from music critics. Pitchfork Media wrote that Welch "add[s] some welcomed ambiguity to a Paul Epworth production that stunningly internalizes every pseudo-psych/freakishly-folk trend that's passed through these parts over the last few years. 'The looking glass so shiny and new/ How quickly the glamor fades,' wisely observes Welch. A gold record in every way."

Chart performance

On July 4, 2009, "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" debuted at number twelve on the UK Singles Chart. It spent a total of seven weeks in the top twenty, and seventeen in the official top seventy-five, a significantly longer charting period than any of the band's previous three singles. "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" debuted at number forty-two on the Irish Singles Chart on June 27, 2009. The song then went on to peak at number forty-one, spending a total of eight weeks on the chart.

As of July 2018 in United Kingdom the track has shifted 308,000 combined sales and streams.