This song hit the airwaves last year here, in the fall. The refrain is unavoidable but the subtext isn’t. The tension between the atmospheric alt-pop sound and singsong, almost childish vocals, with the startling threat of gunfire that just sort of pops out of the blue, is the reason for the pull it exerts, or exerted, since it’s been long played to death and has fallen out of rotation.
Same atmospheric quality, same childlike vocals. The gunfire reference was inspired by what sounds like automatic weapons being fired rhythmically, but is officially "rapping" that just so happens to sound that way, nudge nudge, wink wink.
It's very pleasant on the surface, it's on my Pandora station still. But, the lyrics are of the tune-out variety for me, anti-American at best, celebratory of killing at worst. The song achieved its first exposure on the soundtrack of Slumdog Millionaires.