Lead singer Karen O wrote the lyric about her boyfriend, Angus Andrew, when he left her to accept a job offer. Andrew is lead singer of the band Liars. "'Maps' is the ultimate 'you are always on my mind'-type song," she told Mojo. "Unfortunately, there is never enough humor in the feeling of missing someone, 'Maps' just indulges that emotion."
The refrain is, "Wait, they don't love you like I love you." The word "Maps," which shows up in the chorus, is probably an acronym, but Karen O has never explained what it means.
"Maps" is Yeah Yeah Yeahs most popular song, but it's an outlier for the band; the rest of their debut album, Fever To Tell, is much more aggressive. It was released as the third single after the first two, "Date with the Night" and "Pin," flopped. "By the time it came out, the label had given up on us," Karen O told Rolling Stone. "Then 'Maps' really struck a chord with the public, with the peeps."
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