For a track-by-track interview with Pitchfork, Dev Hynes talked about the vocals recorded for the track:

This track has a very raw vocal take. What made you lean into a more unpolished sound?

Dev Hynes: That’s probably the song on the album I did vocals for the most. Oh my god, it could have been over 100 vocal takes over a two-year period. And every time it was one take. I have a thing about doing one-takes—in my own vocals, I never just drop in one note. I think that stems from the fact that, when I was starting out, I didn’t know how to drop notes in. I know how to do it now, but it’s just not natural for me. So if I get something wrong, I just redo the whole thing.

And this song was inspired by Robert Wyatt. There was an album of his that I had on cassette for so many years called Old Rottenhat, which has predominantly keyboard sounds. So I wanted something like that, with a simple melody but really nice. Also, Air is one of my favorite bands that people don’t realize is one of my favorite bands. [laughs] So it was like Robert Wyatt meets Talkie Walkie-era Air.