"State of Play" originated from an incident with Rabin where an emergency services vehicle passed him with its siren on. He recalled about the sound of its siren: "I thought that's an amazing sound with the Doppler effect and everything as it goes by. That gave me the idea for the screeching kind of guitar sound in the beginning". Speaking about its tune, Squire thought the track was a "conscious effort" from the band to combine a style of hip-hop "groove with heavy rock guitars". White pointed out the singing from Anderson, Rabin, and Squire as particularly strong, with "great musicianship all round".