OMD vocalist Andy McCluskey is a keen art collector, and this song references seven of American realist painter Edward Hopper's paintings. They include his 1942 oil work "Nighthawks," which is a bleak portrayal of people sitting in a downtown diner late at night. "I was in New York for the first time in 20 years," recalled McCluskey. "I was feeling melancholy. It was -9 degrees, it was dark and I was on a street corner looking into an almost empty restaurant. How could I not be reminded of Edward Hopper's paintings?"

Green Day's hit single, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" takes its title from a painting by Gottfried Helnwein that is a parody of "Nighthawks."