Matilda (alt-J song)

"Matilda"
Single by alt-J
from the album An Awesome Wave
B-side	"Fitzpleasure"
Released	10 January 2012
Recorded	2009
Genre	Indie folk progressive folk art rock
Length	3:48
Label	Infectious
Songwriter(s)	Joe Newman, Gus Unger-Hamilton, Gwilym Sainsbury and Thom Green
Producer(s)	Charlie Andrew
Alt-J singles chronology
"Bloodflood" (2011) "Matilda" (2012) "Breezeblocks" (2012)

"Matilda" is a song by British rock band alt-J from their debut studio album An Awesome Wave, released on 10 January 2012 as a digital download. It was released as a split single with "Fitzpleasure" on 24 February as a digital download and on 10" triangle shaped vinyl. It was written by Joe Newman, Gus Unger-Hamilton, Gwilym Sainsbury and Thom Green and produced by Charlie Andrew. The song relates to the movie Léon, specifically the relationship between the main character (a hitman) and a young girl called Mathilda.^[1] The band would later release the song "Leon", a tribute to the main character of the film. The cover image is a photograph of Ball's Pyramid.

The song has a YouTube video featuring imagery of human faces which steadily morph so that every so often you are looking at a new face. This video contained a self-referential gimmick as at the time of release "Alt+J" was the shortcut for a YouTube video to rewind 7 seconds which was the perfect amount of time to go from one "finished" facial image to another so you would see a new face each time you pressed it. This no longer is the case as the shortcut is simply "j" and is now a 10 second skip so it no longer syncs up with the video.