Songfacts®:

• This fluid soft rocker was inspired by the struggle of Brandon Flowers' wife Tana with PTSD. "She has a version called Complex PTSD," The Killers' frontman explained to NME. "It's when a person has had multiple traumatic experiences. Her whole life, she's been covering it, pretending it isn't there. For whatever reason, in her 30s, it's decided to really manifest itself and that's what I'm going through with my family."
  
  "Usually I feel protective of her but I decided to take it head on," Flowers continued. "So 'Rut' is about her submitting to it. She got severely depressed and it wasn't until she sought counseling and got a name for what was going on that it helped. Now she submits to it – that doesn't mean that she's gonna let it beat her, but rather that she's gonna finally acknowledge that it's there and promise to break this cycle."
• Speaking in an episode of Song Exploder, Brandon Flowers explained: "The song is from my wife's point of view, and it's from her perspective. And it's about resilience. So, she's singing to me."