Songfacts®:

• This song finds The Lumineers singer-guitarist Wesley Schultz painting a picture of a couple on the road. The reason for the journey is unexplained, but clearly it's been an ordeal for the woman and she's now feeling low. The car heater broke down and she's missing her children, so the man wants to cheer her up. Sitting in their hotel room, he promises to brighten her evening with some love and affection.
• The Lumineers recorded the song in a single day. "It's like a 15-year-old's fever dream, an American love story in all its glory and heartbreak," explained Schultz. "The last couple left, on the run from something and all alone."
• "Brightside" is the title track and lead single of The Lumineers' fourth album. Simone Felice, producer of Cleopatra and III, returned to helm the record alongside keyboardist David Baron.
• Lumineers multi-instrumentalist Jeremiah Fraites and session musician David Baron played all the instruments between them.
• This topped Billboard's Adult Alternative Airplay chart. It was The Lumineers' sixth #1 on the tally, following "Ho Hey," "Stubborn Love," "Ophelia," "Gloria" and "Life in the City."
• Documentary filmmaker Kyle Thrash directed the song's music video, which doesn't use any actors. Instead, it comprises genuine couples telling their real love stories.
• In a 2022 interview with Fifteen Questions, Schultz used this song as an example of good lyric-writing. "Part of it is to not be so on-the-nose/literal about how you write - to include certain details that can illustrate the point can be so much more compelling than trying to describe it exactly," he explained. "An example would be in the 'Brightside' chorus - there's a line, 'Stranded on the bridge, the cops are closing in.'
  
  I was trying to express this feeling of being in purgatory or in between two worlds and feeling trapped - but instead of saying those things, you try to find a way to illustrate that so it paints a picture."