Songfacts®:

• This song is one of three new tracks included on Northern Irish alternative rock band Snow Patrol's compilation album, Up to Now. It served as the lead single from the collection.
• The song was originally penned by frontman Gary Lightbody for Gwen Stefani, who passed on it. Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger picked it up for her solo CD, then when that album got shelved, Lightbody reclaimed it. The Snow Patrol vocalist told The Denver Post that when the band's UK label first heard the track, they couldn't believe he hadn't kept it for his own band: "They said, 'You gave that to somebody else? What the (expletive) were you doing?' And so we reclaimed it for ourselves. It was originally a ballad, but now it's far from that."
• The song is a surprising departure for the band, in that it is an electronic-infused, '80s-influenced track. "It's one of those songs that we've always had in us," said Lightbody to The Denver Post. "I've loved dance music since I was an 18-year-old kid going to nightclubs, so it was bound to happen at some point. But I'm surprised it took me 15 years."
• The other two previously unreleased songs on Up to Now are "Dark Roman Wine" and "Give Me Strength." The compilation also includes tracks from the two albums Snow Patrol released on UK indie label Jeepster Records: 1998's Songs For Polarbears and 2001's When It's All Over We Still Have To Clear Up. In addition, the record features two songs by The Reindeer Section - an indie supergroup formed by Gary Lightbody featuring members of Scottish acts such as Belle and Sebastian, Idlewild, Mogwai and Teenage Fanclub. There is also a cover of Beyoncé's "Crazy In Love" that was recorded as a live track for BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe's evening session at Maida Vale in London (with a rap performed by Lowe).
• The song was used in the trailer for the 2010 film Leap Year.
• The Northern Ireland city of Derry used this in their successful bid to be crowned UK City of Culture 2013.
• Lightbody told BBC News that the song is about, "loving someone so much that you get exasperated they aren't showing the same amount of passion that you are."