Songfacts®:

• This song is a male-female duet between the Cardigans' Nina Persson and the Manics' James Dean Bradfield.
• The song's leap from #26 to #2 in the UK chart exactly mirrored the drop from #2 to #26 of the Manic Street Preacher's previous single release "Empty Souls" in January 2005.
• The lyrics, "You stole the sun straight from my heart" are almost a direct quote from the Manics' 1999 single "You Stole the Sun from My Heart."
• This was voted The Best Track of the Year at the 2007 Q Awards.
• The line, "Trade all your heroes in for ghosts is a reference to Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here," which contains the lyrics, "And did they get you to trade your heros for ghosts?"
• The lyrics, "I could have seen for miles and miles, I could've shown you how to smile, I could've shown you how to cry" indicate a regret the is likely about Richey Edwards, the Manics guitarist who disappeared in 1995. It's likely that he killed himself. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Keely - Doncaster, England, for above 2
• Bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire told Q magazine June 2009 that this song is about "suicide and connections with people who are gone."