Don't Lie

Frontman Ezra Koenig explained the song's meaning to NME: "On one level it's about not lying, but it has this real romantic yearning in it and that one felt like a real important step in the album," he said.

Koenig added: "It's tapping into something older that we haven't done as much. People may think of us as a band that have lots of layers of meaning, and twists and turns in a song - and I'm not saying this doesn't have that - but the first thing you hear is just the simplicity of the music."

Most of the tracks on Modern Vampires of the City reference at least in part fleeting youth and impending responsibility. On this song we hear Koenig ask:. "I wanna know, does it bother you? The low click of a ticking clock?" He told Q magazine: "There was all this momentum for four years and then, when we stopped touring Contra, suddenly there was time to reflect. I started to feel this weird sense of malaise and all these different thoughts started creeping into my mind. It's not a midlife crisis but it is a bit of space."
Koenig added that "Don't Lie" is a sequel to the band's more carefree earlier songs "M79" and "White Sky." "Over the course of those three songs," he said, " s--t gets progressively real. There's this last romantic appeal to enjoy the daydreamy world of the city but it's clear that already time is running out. Suddenly it's winter."