Background
"This is the purest love song I've ever written. Even more so than "Chasing Cars". It's luxuriating in the beauty and wonder of someone you love with all your heart."
—Gary LightbodyThe song came into being when Gary Lightbody was "tinkering" with the piano with some ideas the band had, and played the first bars of the song. The band laid the song in the studio the same day, which came out quite "fully formed". The initial version of the song has the same structure as the version that appears on the album. The lyric 'crack the shutters open wide' was the first that came to Lightbody, who further commented that its "the most natural song on the album, it's about the most natural thing in the world".
At the time of the release of the album, SP.com posted a section featuring lead singer and lyricist Gary Lightbody discussing the new songs, which was initially a Lightbody interview to RTÉ. About "Crack the Shutters", he said it was the purest love song he'd ever written. The album A Hundred Million Suns is noted for its positive lyrics, as Lightbody was best known before for break-up songs. The song is the one of many positive songs that Lightbody wrote for the album. In an interview with The Sunday Times, he said, "The problem I've always had with writing about love is that you don't really stop and think about it when it's occurring. This time, I made myself think about it — how to fit it into words. The new lyrics took a lot longer than usual, but I'm proud of them." Lightbody credited producer Jacknife Lee with helping him with lyric writing. He praised him further, adding that it was Lee who taught him the importance of the lyrics sounding as good as they're well written.
Read more about this topic: Crack The Shutters
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