This is a track from the second full length studio album by Neon Trees, Picture Show, which takes its name from the band's love of movies. "The movie that's on repeat in the lounge that's always playing right now is Silence Of The Lambs, which is kind of an odd choice and not very reflective of what any of the record's gonna sound like," frontman Tyler Glenn told Rolling Stone, in a pre-release interview. "But there's actually a song in the movie ["Goodbye Horses"] by Q. Lazzarus and that's just become the anthem song of this album. It's one of the coolest songs we've ever heard."

The song contains a spoken-word passage that critics say recalls Madonna's "Vogue."

During a behind the scenes look at the making of Picture Show, Tyler Glenn explained the record started with a concept. "The themes of the songs are a lot about playing pretend and so I thought that a movie theater would be a great way to kind of be a visual," he said. "It started back with the idea for the album being the ability that someone has to escape for two hours in someone else's life."