Under Control

Sometimes we think the love of another is all we need to make ourselves whole, and we invest everything in that relationship. In this song, Goulding has a catharsis as she realizes that she was whole all along; the guy who left her "was never the missing key." Goulding wrote the song with Oliver Goldstein, Bonnie McKee and Cory Nitta; Goldstein and Nitta produced it. In a Songfacts interview with McKee, she explained: "It's about co-dependency and having an epiphany about that. Realizing that all you really need is yourself and belief."

The song was written a few days before Christmas in 2012. "There are so many songs about control, so we just took a different spin on it," Bonnie McKee told Songfacts. "Writing with Ellie Goulding was an incredible experience. I was always such a big fan - she is an incredible writer and just picks up a guitar and goes. Also, her voice is like something from Middle-earth - she's really like a magical pixie singer."

Goulding released a video for this song that was directed by Conor McDonnell and features footage from her Halcyon Days tour.