Songfacts®:

• This song was written by Florence Welch and her songwriting partner Isabella Summers (The Machine) during a trip in Jamaica. The lyrics were inspired by an anxious wait as Welch anticipated a call from her boyfriend that never arrived. The song uses the biblical tale of the Hebrew strongman hero Samson and the beautiful and treacherous Delilah as a gender-reversing metaphor for her man ('Delilah')'s betrayal of her.
  
  "This was one of the first songs Isa and I wrote for this record... while we were at Geejam studios in Jamaica," Welch explained. "It's based on a party we had just been to in Miami, the biblical tale of Samson and Delilah, and the agony of the mobile phone in modern relationships."
• How Big How Blue How Beautiful is the most personal record that Florence and the Machine has made to date. Welch told Billboard magazine that it was her friend Taylor Swift who made her more comfortable putting her own experiences into song: "Taylor said that you must sing about what's happening in your life," she said.
  
  "It's definitely not about trying to be vindictive," Welch added. "It's about being honest. This could've been a breakup record," she added about the longtime off-and-on relationship that inspired many of the tracks. "But it was much more about trying to understand myself."
• The video was directed by long-time Florence + The Machine collaborator Vincent Haycock. It finds Welch in the clutches of a bed demon that contemplates strangling her in her sleep. A warrior princess enters the scene and prays the demon away.