Songfacts®:

• This song of guilt and regret finds the pained protagonist knowing he is selfish for chasing his dream across the globe, his guilt increasing as he hears home in corny old 'our songs.' "If I'm writing about relationships, there always an amalgamation of all the ones I've ever had," frontman Joe Mount explained to NME. "I remember hour-long phone calls and apologizing constantly and somebody really upset about the fact you're far away doing what you've dreamt of doing your whole life. But the main part is about being away and listening to music and things that remind you of listening to them with the person you're in love with, and that helps you."
• The song was inspired by a camping expedition that Mount went on with Metronomy keyboardist Oscar Cash. "Me and Oscar went camping in Easte Prawle, Devon," he recalled. "One night we came back to our tents late after an evening at the local pub. The walk was very beautiful under the stars, we spent the whole time bumping into the sides of the road because we were craning our necks. Once back at the camp we caught our second wind with a bottle of whiskey and lit a fire."
  
  Uncharacteristically I found myself wishing we had brought an acoustic guitar along with us, Oscar has an impressive Beatles repertoire," Mount continued. "I also desperately wanted to send some text messages, but we had no reception. 'The Upsetter' is the campfire singalong we never had, it is played and sung entirely live."
• The song's music video was directed by Daren Rabinovitch of Californian Encyclopedia Pictura (Bjork, Grizzly Bear). The conceptual clip is set in the isolated wilderness and focuses on a lonely primitive woman who uses leaves and bark to build herself a companion.