Songfacts®:

• This is the first single from Angles, the fourth studio album by New York rock band The Strokes. The single was released on February 9, 2011 and offered for the first 48 hours as a free download from the band's homepage.
• Angles was the first Strokes album to be written by all five band members. Guitarist Nick Valensi told NME he was glad that the record company chose this as the first single, "because that was a song where literally all of us contributed to the writing. It made me think, 'Wow, maybe we'll do our best work when we put all our ideas together.'"
• Frontman Julian Casablancas explained the song's meaning to NME: "I guess it's about someone who works in the military and has a girlfriend. It's cheesy, I guess, but it's about having to leave a loved one behind."
• Casablancas admitted that Clarence Clemons' 1985 duet with Jackson Browne, "You're A Friend Of Mine," was an inspiration for this song. Said the singer: "I weirdly like the bridge and the chorus of that Clarence Clemons song. So that was the vibe we were going for." He then sheepishly added, "I shouldn't confess to these things!"
• The Strokes performed this on Saturday Night Live on March 5, 2011.