[1] The song's production was handled by Brandon Darner, and its lyrics describe the narrator's resistance to change in the face of great turmoil.

The single was created without Daniel Platzman, who joined the group later, and it includes contributions from early band members Andrew and Brittany Tolman.

After "It's Time" was covered on Glee in September 2012 and gained heavy rotation in commercials and television shows, it reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the band's first Top 40 single.

[5] In February 2021, for the 25th anniversary of Adult Alternative Airplay, Billboard ranked "It's Time" at number 7 on its list of the 100 most successful songs in the chart's history;[6][7] in September 2023, the magazine ranked the song at number 87 on a similar retrospective list for the 35th anniversary of Alternative Airplay.

[8][9] Dan Reynolds told The Huffington Post about the writing process for the song: There's so many times you wake up at 3 a.m., grab a recorder on the iPhone and say something—a lyrical idea or melody—and then you lay it out in Logic later on and sometimes it makes no sense.

The sky begins to grow more turbulent as the band walks past old flags, boat wreckage, a destroyed bridge, and dead trees.

Lead singer Dan Reynolds then shouts, and in the next scene the band members are shown running away from their dig site.

A large explosion throws Reynolds into the air where he seems to levitate (similarly to the Continued Silence album cover).

The band also performed and singer Dan Reynolds was interviewed on Norwegian and Swedish television show Skavlan on February 1, 2013.