“Mowgli’s Road” is track #5 on Marina and the Diamonds debut studio album The Family Jewels, as well as her first single release. She explained to Digital Spy why she chose this for her buzz single:

Because it wasn’t time for me to release one of my really big songs. “Mowgli’s Road” is one of my most uncompromising songs and I wanted to get the message out there that I’m not a manufactured girl popstar and I’m going to do my own thing. I knew it wasn’t going to be really successful but that wasn’t the point. Saying that, getting a song that starts with the word ‘cuckoo’ in the charts was worth a shot!"

The song’s title is a reference to the character in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, and the track conjures up the sense, if not the sound of the English writer’s story. Marina explained the song’s message to Digital Spy:

It’s about there being two roads in fame and the industry. When I wrote it, I didn’t know whether I was meant to be some kind of weird indie artist or a big pop thing. At the end of the day, I just thought, “You can be both if you want”. I’m a leftfield artist but I want to be really successful. You know, I think celebrity culture and sexuality in pop music is really important, but I want there to be an alternative for people.

For the song’s video, Marina had two plastic puppet legs bolted to her waist for 17 hours. She described the promo to the BBC as “Jim Henson does Beyoncé’s Single Ladies”. The songstress added laughing: “Making these things isn’t all fun and games.”