Songfacts®:

• Guy Garvey told the Independent newspaper May 9, 2008 that the lyric "Poundin' the streets where my father's feet still ring from the walls" referred to his hometown of Manchester. The Elbow frontman added that this is one of his favorite lyrics as "he [my father] loved the city as much as I do and he was very proud of it."
• Garvey told popmatters.com: "'Weather to Fly' is about the early days of the band and for that reason it is my favorite song on the album. I told a journalist that recently and he said, 'Oh God: don't start getting self-referential now!' and I thought, 'Well have I not earned the right playing 18 years with the same people?' I am allowed to write one song about how much I love this lot. The only line I had with 'Weather to Fly' was 'pounding the streets where my father's feet still ring from the wall' because that is Manchester, you know? That is my Manchester reference for that tune. Everything after that came pretty quickly because I was positive (at that age) about being in Elbow. This is still something I never take for granted- even after this amount of time."