According to guitarist Huw Bunford the track had the working title "Miami Vice" as it featured a drum roll similar to one used in the theme tune to the 80's television show of the same name. The band decided not to keep this name as they were keen to avoid links with a particular place—Bunford gave the example of the song's use on a travel documentary about Miami as something the group did not want to see. Some promotional copies of "Phantom Power" featured "Slow Life" as the first track although it eventually appeared as the last track on the officially released version of the album. Gruff Rhys has stated that the song had to go at either the beginning or the end of the record as it is the "most sonically impressive" track on the album. Rhys has described his lyrics as "regurgitating what we hear on the news, recycled, vomiting them all back". "The Guardian" has interpreted the song as a "cutting critique of middle-east colonialism".