Songfacts®:

• Singer Bethany Cosentino told Artist Direct the story of this track. "When I wrote 'Wasted Time,' I knew it would be the last song on the album," she said. "I wanted to have song that was very cinematic. I feel like when a record has a very epic ending song, it captures this really special thing. When bands end albums with a song that stands out from everything else, it's very cool, and it leaves you saying, 'Wow, that record's done.' I wanted to explore that. When I demoed it and sent it to Bobb [Bruno, multi-instrumentalist, production], he was like, 'I think we should keep this one really minimal.'"
  
  "Our drummer Brady [Miller] played Timpani on it and doctored the synth parts," Cosentino continued. "It's very minimal. We wanted to have something that was cinematic and epic conclusion."
• Cosentino explained the song's meaning: "Content-wise, it's about feeling like you don't mind if things don't work out all the time in life, but you want to be like, 'Oh, this didn't necessarily work out, but at least I've gained something from it or learned a lesson from it,'" she said. "It's this idea that if things don't work out, it's not necessarily the end of the world if you have some lesson or memory you can take from the experience."