Songfacts®:

• "Risk" is about a relationship that goes bad but won't go away. Metric frontwoman Emily Haines sings about borrowed kisses and a love that started strong but spun out of control as it sped up. The lyrics are vague, but the song projects a sense of innocence lost and a desire to cut away from a past that won't stop swinging back around.
• Metric recorded the song for their seventh studio album, Art Of Doubt. It wasn't released as a single, but it became a favorite for band and fans alike.
• In an interview with Forbes, Haines said that the audience response to "Risk" was pleasantly surprising. It was the last song the band recorded for the album and they did it primarily to have something to "tie the record together." Unexpectedly, the song ended up showing the direction they wanted take the band in.
  
  Lead guitarist James Shaw said, "We found with that song we really didn't have to do much." Producer Justin Meldal-Johnson had instructed them to just play without any heroic guitar riffs or complicated arrangements. Basically, it was easier and more natural when they just let it flow, and that was the kind of music they wanted to make more of."