Songfacts®:

• Guitarist and producer Chris Walla cited this to MTV News as a personal favorite. He explained: "'The Ice Is Getting Thinner' is terrifying. That's one of those cases where I got really excited about the soundscape of the song matching the lyric. It's particularly icy and particularly cold. There was a point, when we were in the middle of it, where I kept checking in with everybody, being like, 'Guys, this is kind of weird. Just making sure everyone is aware of that. And everyone seemed into it. That's just how we worked this time out. We committed to everything really quickly. It's less brain and more gut."
• Bassist Nick Harmer told Billboard magazine: "'The Ice Is Getting Thinner' just breaks my heart every time. It's a really pretty, electric guitar song... it's somber like [the last album's] 'Brothers on a Hotel Bed.'"
• Walla added to VH1 News: "With 'The Ice Is Getting Thinner' I really wanted something that felt icy and literal. I wanted a certain chill about it. The demo came in like a major heap of piano. I really just wanted some gravity in it. I wanted to strip the piano out of it and rethink it as this really studied, careful, stark song."