Songfacts®:

• In this song Lightspeed Champion (Dev Hynes) criticizes the path of alcoholic excess so many of his peers escape to by telling a tale of overindulging while in a relationship with an alcoholic girlfriend.
• This was based on a Hip-Hop song Hynes once wrote.
• London based singer-songwriter Emmy The Great (Emma-Lee Moss) provided backing vocals on this track and several others on the album. Hynes explained to the Sun newspaper January 18, 2008 why he chose her: "I always wanted her singing on the album. To me, she has the only female voice that really complements mine. I met her when she was DJing in a club. She played three Weezer songs in a row and I remember running up to her and saying, 'Oh, my Gosh!' We ended up singing together. Then I got her to sing on my demos and so it progressed. Mike Mogis (producer and member of Bright Eyes) knows a lot of people. Even Emmylou Harris played on one Bright Eyes album. He wasn't bragging when he asked which female singer I wanted on the album but I thought Emmy The Great's voice was so cool."
• In the same Sun interview Hynes explained that his Lightspeed Champion name originated from a comic book character he created years previously: "When I was 13, it was the name of a comic I used to draw, starring a kind of mathematical superhero. I have these weird names in my head and eventually they come out."