[2] After meeting with Australian musician Alex Cameron in Las Vegas, Flowers finally had a breakthrough as they kept on working together until the second verse was finished.

[8] "Run for Cover" has been characterized under the genres new wave, post-punk revival, pop rock, heartland rock, and synth-pop,[9][10][11][12][13] and was written by Flowers, Mark Stoermer, Ronnie Vannucci Jr., Alex Cameron, Jacknife Lee, and Stuart Price.

[14] Lyrically, the song talks about domestic violence as Flowers tells a woman to "run for cover" from her abusive husband while she still can.

Andrew Trendell from NME described it as a "synth-pop banger driven by post-punk propulsion" and noted the similarity in sound to that of Sam's Town.

[7][13] Rolling Stone's Daniel Kreps called it a "glossy, buoyant track that proves the band hasn't strayed from their textbook sound.

The video tells the story of a woman who tries to run away from her ex-lover, backing up the recurring abusive relationship theme of the song's lyrics.