Songfacts®:

• Martha Wainwright divorced producer Brad Albetta in 2018 after 11 years of marriage. They had two sons together, Arcangelo and Francis, but the breakdown of their relationship morphed into a messy dispute over the custody of their children. This song evokes Wainwright's sadness as she's separated from her sons because of custody arrangements. "As a mother of two young children, I was devastated and very depressed about losing access to my kids, " she told UK newspaper The Sun. "I didn't think things could get so bad between me and their father and that I would have to fight to see the kids. I've had to be strong for them but, boy, did I find myself on the ground in a pool of tears a bunch of times."
• Wainwright wrote the song for her Love Will Be Reborn album. She penned the record over several years detailing her journey of heartache after her divorce before moving on and embarking on a new relationship. "There's a real A and B side to my new record," Wainwright told The Guardian in 2021. "I wrote the title track at the beginning of my divorce five years ago. I wasn't very happy and I was scared. But I think subconsciously I was driven to make something good out of something really bad. So there are songs about a terrible, scary divorce, losing access to your children, lawyers and courts and darkness. But also love and new beginnings."
• Wainwright enlisted the help of producer Pierre Marchand, who has a familial connection to the singer. He produced her mother and aunt Kate & Anna McGarrigle's 1990 record, Heartbeats Accelerating, as well as her brother Rufus's 2001 album Poses. For this somber song, Marchand strips it down to essential instrumentals, enabling Wainwright to emphasize her anguish.