“Million Man” by The Rubens

"Million Man" was the first taste of Lo La Ru, the third album from Australian alt-rockers The Rubens, going out as its lead single on 27 October 2017, months ahead of the record. They cut it with brothers Torbitt and Wilder Schwartz, friends since a Laneway Festival in 2013, inside a World War II communications bunker, long since decommissioned, out in the south west of Sydney, and it was the first track the two camps tackled together. Keyboardist Elliott Margin recalls it arriving out of nowhere at the piano, the words slowly spelling out a story as it grew.

Frontman Sam Margin carries most of the lead vocal, handing the post-chorus to Elliott, who sings backing everywhere else. It went gold in Australia in March 2019 and drew a Rock Work of the Year nomination at the 2019 APRA Music Awards.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.