Songfacts®:

• Frontman and songwriter Conor O'Brien told The Daily Telegraph that this song originally lasted nine minutes and was, "a big, ambient soundscape that peaked in the middle." O'Brien gradually cut it down to a three minute track, in which, inspired by reading Astronomy and Science writer Carl Sagan, he attempts to put the story of the evolution of human intelligence into a personal perspective.
• Speaking with WhiteTapes, O'Brien said he prefers writing pleasing pop songs to tunes with a message. He explained: "I think if you focus on trying to give a message, then it'll be almost the opposite of what it was. Writing should be a free thing. It shouldn't be just a political statement or an opinion, it should be a mixture of lots of different things. I should try to cut between opinion and emotion, it should be something separate from all these divisions. What I'm really trying to do is make something beautiful. I don't want to change someone's opinion, I'm not into that. And 'Passing A Message' is really about DNA, like passing a message on to each other from the beginning of evolution. There's no real message in that, it just happens."