Songfacts®:

• The placebo effect occurs when a patient gets better after taking what they believe is medication, but is really just something inert, like a sugar pill. It's proof of the healing power of the mind, and it adds another level of complexity to the already dizzying amount of medical information we're bombarded with. In this song, Elizabeth And The Catapult takes the voice of someone getting medical advice from all sides, including healers with dubious credentials. "A lot of it is about being overwhelmed by the wellness industry and all the ads that we're bombarded with on Instagram and Facebook and feeling like we're never good enough," she said on the Songfacts Podcast.
• Elizabeth And The Catapult is the performing name of Elizabeth Ziman, who along with the composer Paul Brill, has done music on many documentary films, including Trapped, In My Father's House, and A Dangerous Son. "Pop The Placebo" reflects her cinematic mentality. "I have a side of me that's always thinking of string arrangements and how something can just flesh out in a more moderate romanticized way," she told Songfacts. "This song I initially did very live and immediate, and then I realized that the story of the song felt like every verse is about a different character, and it really felt to me like a little movie in a song: little acts in a play."
• Much of the Sincerely, E album is just Elizabeth And The Catapult at the piano, but this song has a lot more going on musically. She plays guitar, piano, Fender Rhodes and mellotron on the track; Adam Minkoff is on bass; Katie Jacoby plays violin and viola; and Joanna Schubert adds background vocals.