Songfacts®:

• Blake explained the song's meaning to Pigeons and Planes: "It's not necessarily a human thing, as in, it's not relating to me or to a person. I decided to call the album Overgrown after I made that song the title track, and that lyric is just part of a poem called 'Overgrown,' so that's what I'm singing about. It's the post-apocalyptic state that you find yourself in mentally."
  
  Blake is referring to Emily Dickinson's Charlotte Bronte-inspired poem "All overgrown by cunning moss," which is about the impermanence of life, a sentiment that also runs through Overgrown.
• The song's main sentiment of wanting to be around, still, "when everything's overgrown" was inspired by an encounter Blake had with Joni Mitchell. The Canadian legend came to see the English singer at a US gig and gave him some wise advise afterwards about building a long-lasting career.
• Overgrown won the 2013 Barclaycard Mercury Prize, which is an annual award for the best album from the UK and Ireland. The judges called it "an inventive, poetic and poignant album of great beauty."
  
  "Well, I lost a bet… on the other hand, I should thank a couple of people…" Blake said upon receiving the honor.
• The songs on Overgrown were loosely themed around a single sleepless day.