Songfacts®:

• The title track of Metric's Formentera album takes its name from an idyllic island off the coast of Spain. It came to represent the notion of escapism for the band while making the record. While Metric spent the 2020-2022 locked down in deep Canadian winters, Formentera only existed on a page in a "dream destinations" travel book on a desk in their recording studio.
  
  This song, lying in the middle of the album, serves as a moment of release. "There's almost a 'Eureka!' moment of realizing that you can let go and you can come to terms with the things that you're not in control of and the rest of the album is bearing witness to someone finding their own freedom and becoming free of the anxiety," guitarist Jimmy Shaw noted to NME.
• The song incorporates a string arrangement by Bulgarian composer Todor Kobakov performed by the Budapest Orchestra. "It is meant to sweep the listener off and out from the here and now into a place of peace," vocalist Emily Haines told UK newspaper The Sun. "Why not just let go?"
• Somebody who did get away to Formentera is James Taylor. He worked on his song "Carolina In My Mind" while on vacation on the Mediterranean island.
  
  Also, English singer songwriter Chris Rea wrote "On The Beach" about a holiday he spent with his future wife on Formentera.