and who I understand." "A Time Machine Is My New Girlfriend" is a frenetic rocker with a Bo Diddley rhythm, and lyrics cautioning listeners that relationships can come with "late fees". Hunt explained its lyrics to be a metaphor for his lover making him feel younger. The title track features metronomic drumming and chicken scratch riffs. It is about people from different economic classes falling in love after social and economic conditions moved them into the same neighborhood. The setting is described in the first verse, "It's the end of white flight / even tycoons are licking their wounds / economic blight got the neighborhood looking gap-toothed / end of white flight / maybe now you see something you like / money tight and you're hating your life". Hunt said that writing the song was "essentially a response to some of the things I have seen as a result of the global recession we are going through. I wasn't trying to make any political statement. I was more making a philosophical comment that essentially says we have all these unspoken issues in our society. But I see a collision of those ideas and unresolved issues. My question is what could you have been hoping for when we make the kind of decisions in our society that we have made." The Prince-inspired "Cross Dresser" has a new wave style and whimsical lyrics in which the narrator holds on to the memory of his lost love by wearing her clothes. Hunt said that he did not intend for the song to have a meaning other than the explicit: "I just thought it was funny. It's one of those things that people talk about, but that's never really happened to me. But I literally wrote it in 20 minutes. It felt good ... It was really quick and I just thought it was something silly and funny." "It's a Mysterious Hustle" features somber strings, a languid rhythm, an eerie piano vamp, and bitter singing by Hunt. It was recorded solely by Hunt, who played guitar, keyboards, and electronic drums. Its lyrics are about having to "work your way through the crowd" and "overcome the place you come from", and view the world as "no place to raise a child". Its spoken word conclusion preaches, "If you follow the beaten path, it will keep you tied to the past." Release and promotion What Were