In his words, "there's something about being on a beach in winter time, no-one else is there, it's blowing a gale, raining sideways, and there's something redemptive about yelling into the wind."

[9] The song also made an uncredited appearance on the Grey's Anatomy episode "An Honest Mistake", which aired on 19 February 2009.

[10] The show has previously featured Snow Patrol songs like "Open Your Eyes", "Chasing Cars" and "Make this Go on Forever".

[13] On 13 May, Gary Lightbody and lead guitarist Nathan Connolly joined George Lamb on his radio show on BBC 6 Music and played a short acoustic set which additionally featured "Take Back the City", the first single from A Hundred Million Suns.

[14] The single featured a re-worked version of the song that appeared on the album and was not released in any physical format.

The music video for the song was shot in Cape Town in April 2009, where the band was playing at the Coke Zero Festival.

Simultaneously, a pair of hands are constantly drawing with a pen, making cut-outs of Lightbody and changing the background behind him, appearing to move him in different places.

Although critical reception of the song upon the release of the album was generally positive, it was not considered a strong single.

At the time of album release, Spin's Josh Modell received the song well, saying that it defeated "cheesiness with unabashed sincerity".

[25] PopMatters' Ross Langager praised the song's chorus, calling it "beautiful, with its pitch-perfect image of separation by an ocean".

In his words: "Ever since the success of 'Chasing Cars', the band have jettisoned their punky dance leanings for lily-livered ballads that wring their puny hands with grave yearning.

"[28] Clash's Mike Diver reviewed the single negatively as well, calling it "a bit too safe, really – I would have liked to hear some more development in their sound."