Harness Your Hopes

"Harness Your Hopes" is a song by American rock band Pavement. It was originally recorded for the band's fourth studio album Brighten The Corners, but was ultimately left off the final record by Stephen Malkmus. It later appeared on the CD version of the "Spit on a Stranger" EP in 1999,[1] and on the 2008 expanded reissue of Brighten The Corners, the Nicene Creedence Edition.

"Harness Your Hopes"
Song by Pavement
from the EP Spit on a Stranger
ReleasedJune 22, 1999
Recorded1996
Genre
Length3:26
LabelMatador
Songwriter(s)Stephen Malkmus
Producer(s)
Music video
"Harness Your Hopes" on YouTube

In 2017, the song became Pavement's most streamed song on Spotify, surpassing their previous hit "Cut Your Hair", and also became viral on social media app TikTok in 2020. A music video for the song was also released in March 2022 in anticipation for the reissue of the Spit on a Stranger EP.[2]

Background

"Harness Your Hopes" was originally written by Stephen Malkmus. While Malkmus liked the song, he left the song off of the album "for no good reason", which was because he thought the song sounded wrong after the band spliced the song to shorted a waltz section that came after the song's chorus, which the band did not tell him about. He then decided to turn it into a B-side.[3]

Belated success

The song, having previously never been on the band's top five songs on Spotify, suddenly became Pavement's most streamed song on Spotify in 2017. While the exact causes of the song's popularity are unknown, it has been suggested it was due to a change in Spotify's algorithm.[3] It also became viral on TikTok, in 2020, with people dancing to the song.

"Harness Your Hopes" currently has over 71 million streams on Spotify as of 2022.[4]

Music video

A music video for the song, directed by Alex Ross Perry and starring Yellowjackets actor Sophie Thatcher was released on March 10, 2022, to promote the upcoming re-release of the Spit on a Stanger EP.[2]

References
  1. Spit on a Stranger - Pavement | Credits | AllMusic, retrieved 2022-03-17
  2. Kreps, Daniel (2022-03-10). "'Yellowjackets' Star Sophie Thatcher Goes Back to the '90s in Pavement's 'Harness Your Hopes' Video". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  3. "Why Is An Obscure B-Side Pavement's Top Song On Spotify? It's Complicated". Stereogum. 2020-11-17. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  4. Harness Your Hopes - B-side, 2008-12-09, retrieved 2022-03-16
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