Songfacts®:

• The Dillinger Escape Plan is a New Jersey band formed in 1997, taking their name from the famous convicted bank robber John Dillinger. Option Paralysis is their fourth album and was recorded with the lineup of guitarist Ben Weinman, vocalist Greg Puciato, bassist Liam Wilson, guitarist Jeff Tuttle and drummer Billy Rymer.
• This song was the album's first single. It debuted on Liquid Metal SXM on Christmas Day, 2009 and became available for download on January 19, 2010. Liam Wilson explained why the band chose this for the band's first single to The Associated Press: "This is the fourth song we completed for the album while the end section was one of the earliest pieces we started playing around with. We decided to make it our first single and lead off the album with it because for us, and hopefully our listeners, it sort of served as a Cliffs Notes-type song. It distills a little piece of every DEP release up to this point while simultaneously intertwining an introductory appetizer of some of the darker and more sinister themes we extrapolate upon throughout the rest of the record."
• On some of the lyrics on Option Paralysis, it is difficult for the listener to determine if the singer and lyricist Greg Puciato is handing down indictments such on this track, or feeling emotionally wounded. "This record is concept driven but there is still a very emotional and personal aspect to his lyrics," said Weinman in press materials. "He's going through transitional stages in his life right now."
• Liam Wilson explained to CMU what inspired Option Paralysis: "There's always a lot that goes into a Dillinger record, intellectually and emotionally. I think the most focused idea behind this one is the umbrella idea of 'sensory overload.' The title references the idea that we've got so many choices in our modern world that sometimes we simply can't make one anymore. The feeling that everything is one click away, transparency is the norm, secrecy and consequently privacy are dying fast deaths, and everything is free and thus value-less... these are all concepts that affect us personally and as a band, and I believe that as a consequence, our music, our lyrics, our artwork and packaging etc are a reflection of these concepts."
• Puciato told Kerrang! magazine May 4, 2013 that this is the one Dillinger song he'd play to someone who didn't know the band or wanted to know what they were about. He explained: "It sums up what we are and everything we offer."