Many of the songs on Sam Smith's In the Lonely Hour album, including this one, were inspired by his unrequited love for one person. He explained to Interview magazine. "My album focuses on unrequited love quite a lot because I don't think it's spoken about enough in music. I've been through it myself and I found it hard to find songs that were about that, so I've definitely tried to make that a part of my album." Smith added: "When I was going through that, instead of searching for songs by other artists to relate to I could listen to my own music. I'd do a song in the studio and it would explain everything I'm going through so perfectly that when I went home and I felt down I could listen to that to make me feel better. It's a documentation of my life. I think it's just important to put it out there." Smith told 4Music: "Leave Your Lover is about someone I fell in love with last year. I tried to make this track sound pretty because the message of the song is pretty sad." rqstd: BBelasio