Songfacts®:

• The Head and the Heart had struggled for ages to lay down on disc this ode to Los Angeles in a satisfactory manner. It was producer Jay Joyce's insistence on doing a live take that proved to be the breakthrough. "Jay was really adamant about getting a great performance," co-vocalist Jonathan Russell said. "We have all the tools in the world to make something sound real or more excitable, but it's never really as true as the band in the room for the whole take. 'City Of Angels' - we had previously re-cut that song and played it so many times. But within two takes in Nashville, we nailed it. It felt like we were playing on a massive stage in front of tons of people."
• The song finds Jonathan Russell comparing Los Angeles to the small town where he'd grown up in Virginia and the experience of trying to make new friends while living in a remote corner of the city. "And, it was also me hinting at trying to see someone who lived in LA and it not coming to fruition so I got a lot of love in this town but it never seems to stay and never seems to grow," he recounted to Radio.com.