Songfacts®:

• "Thirsty" was written by Neil Finn and his son, Elroy Finn. The song explores the idea of intense attraction, seizing the moment and not hesitating in pursuing what one wants, as seen in the repeated refrain, "Don't dilly dally, don't delay."
• The song was inspired by Elroy falling in love on a Mediterranean holiday in the early 2020s. He wrote the music and Neil Finn penned the lyrics.
• In modern parlance, to be "thirsty" means to crave sex. Neil Finn didn't know this, but when he started working with the line, "How come some people never get thirsty?" his son Elroy filled him in on the modern meaning. Suddenly, Neil had a whole new approach. He told Stereogum the line "is about reluctance to get involved with people."
  
  "With all of my lyrics, they're a little ambiguous in places," he added. "I like to leave doors open for people to have their own imagining. But that's the setting of it, is a reluctance to jump in and get involved - probably because of the fear of past experience and things going badly wrong. It was a lovely development from Elroy and I talking about what the intent of the song should be. And a most welcome thing to be working with my son like that."
• "Thirsty" appears on Crowded House's eighth studio album, Gravity Stairs, a record the band produced themselves alongside Australian producer Steven Schram. Producer Tchad Blake, a frequent collaborator of Crowded House keyboardist Mitchell Froom, recommended Schram, whose resumé includes work with bands like San Cisco and Tiny Little Houses.