Songfacts®:

• Frontman Alex Kapranos (from self-titled magazine): "I don't have a classical music background, so when I read about music theory sometimes it spurs me on to write in a different way. I was reading about modes, and I realized you can write in these modes just by choosing what note you start on and restricting yourself to certain notes. So I was going through this experiment of trying to write on just the white keys on the keyboard, and that's how the melody came about.
  In the clubs of '94, I'd fallen asleep on my hand. They'd write something on my hand or put a stamp on my hand, and it was on my face the next morning. And I thought, 'Wouldn't it be wonderful if someone had written their name on your hand, and it was backwards on your face but then forwards on your mirror.' Something like that would be an omen—and I do love omens."