It was serviced to UK hot adult contemporary radio on December 9, 2017, as the album's third and final single.
[1] The accompanying music video, directed by Danny Drysdale, was released on January 9, 2018, and depicts a woman who suffers from loneliness and depression at several points in her life, from childhood to adulthood.
In an episode of the Song Exploder podcast on October 6, 2017, Brandon Flowers explained that the lyrics of "Rut" were inspired by his wife, Tana Mundkowsky, who struggles with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to a traumatizing childhood.
"The song is from my wife's point of view, and it's from her perspective.
The pitch on Flowers' vocals was altered to make his voice sound more feminine.