Guitarist and songwriter Patterson Hood describes Decoration Day as being lyrically a "pretty dark" record, though he notes that the band "had so much fun making it, and I think that kind of comes through". Three of the album's songs - "Heathens", "Your Daddy Hates Me" and "Give Pretty Soon" - are referred to as being Hood's "divorce trilogy", dealing with what Hood himself refers to as the "emotional fallout" that follows divorce. He has stated that "Decoration Day" is "more or less ... an album about choices, good and bad, right and wrong, and the consequences of those choices." Seven of the album's tracks were first takes, while about five songs were second takes.