Following the release of his previous album Worlds (2014), Robinson had set high expectations for himself,[3] saying in 2018 that he felt he was "under a lot of pressure to do something akin to a follow-up".

Robinson viewed the song a means to overcome his fears and create music without considering external disapproval, saying "So many of the painful experiences I was having with criticism or rejection or failure were imagined.

Several reviewers praised the song's production; PopMatters's Chris Conaton said that it has a "strong piano element", but switches to an electronic beat with percussive "digital clicks and pops".

[8] Slant's Charles Lyons-Burt felt that each motif is periodically "dismantled and put back together" into a different one, preventing the song from becoming overly repetitive.

[14] Our Culture's Konstantinos Pappis found the song "irresistibly catchy and strikingly intimate" and felt that the songwriting also reflected on the "imaginative spirit" of Worlds.