Songfacts®:

• This is the title track from Dashboard Confessional's sixth studio album. Frontman and chief songwriter Chris Carrabba was undecided whether Alter The Ending should be a full-on electric rock project or a stripped-down, acoustic affair so he decided to make it both. The album was released in two versions: a single CD containing electric versions of songs and a deluxe 2-CD edition, which included a second disc of acoustic versions of all 12 of the tracks. Carrabba told Billboard magazine that the acoustic collection still features the full band, but with a minimalist approach more reminiscent of when the group was mostly a solo project showcasing Carrabba's intimately personal acoustic songs in the early 2000s. "I can even point to one track, and I won't tell you which it is, that was my least favorite track once completed on the full-band version of Alter The Ending even though other people love it," Carrabba said. "And the acoustic version has become my favorite song on the record."
• The album was produced by Butch Walker (Fall Out Boy, All American Rejects, Pink) and Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger. Rolling Stone commented that the sensitive Carrabba and alternative rocker Schlesinger may seem like an odd match. Caribba concurred that was exactly the point. "I thought, 'Here's a guy who might challenge me to look at my songs differently,'" he said. "Adam is a student of a different world of musicianship than I am. He was studying the Beach Boys while I was studying (American punk band) Jawbreaker. It's like we speak the same language but just learned it in different countries."