The track was first released in the United Kingdom on 15 April 2011 as the second single from Clare's debut studio album, The Lateness of the Hour (2011).

[1] The track was written by Clare, Jim Duguid and produced by Major Lazer (Diplo and Switch), with co-production from Ariel Rechtshaid and Mike Spencer.

Lyrically, the song describes the protagonist who is not ready for a committed relationship and he must end things with his love interest in good terms.

Prior to it entering the UK Singles Chart, he had been forced to take a job as an estate agent after being dropped by his record label due to poor sales of his album.

[6] Soon after its success on the chart, Universal Republic Records signed Clare to a distribution deal that allowed The Lateness of the Hour to be released in the US.

Clare said that he originally wanted samurais cutting each other up in the music video but the budget did not permit it, so he had to settle for kendo fighters.

[4] The video opened to very small numbers, but two months after the Internet Explorer 9 advert campaign, it gained much popularity and by 24 February 2013, it had more than 40 million views.