Songfacts®:

• Matt Nathanson came to the fore in 2007 with his Some Mad Hope album, which chronicled the real-life breakdown of his marriage. The big hit from that album was "Come On Get Higher," which like many of his songs, is very romantic, but conflicted.
  
  By 2022 his marriage had stabilized and he was writing love songs without the pathos. "Sway" is one result. It's a song about getting lost in another person, with Nathanson set on learning to play the song that will make her sway to the music.
  
  "I feel strongly that I'm done with the 'why didn't you love me?' songs," he told Songfacts. "I think that I've finally got those out. Most of them."
• This song is part of Nathanson's album Boston Accent, which was released in 2022 but was in the works before the pandemic. When COVID hit, some of the songs took on new meaning, and Nathanson's attitudes also changed. "'Sway' is kind of a celebration," he said in his Songfacts interview. "There's a lot of celebration of what I've got, which is crazy because I don't think I truly appreciated what I've got in a real way until during and after the pandemic."
• Nathanson wrote this piano-driven tune with Nolan Sipe, who worked on two other Boston Accent tracks as well: "Soundtrack" and "Pictures."
  
  That piano was played by Butch Walker, who produced the album. Walker has an extensive resumé with productions for Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Billy Idol and many others.