This song and In Love set the Raincoats apart in an early punk/post-punk world where artists rarely wrote songs about love, but both songs are less about love as a positive force and more about the uncertainty and anxiety that it can bring.

Ana da Silva wrote Black and White’s lyrics specifically about the uncertain feelings towards someone that you’ve only dated for a short time – not in reference to any person in particular, she later pointed out. The opening verse instead refers to her regular train commute, a place where she could often formulate her artistic ideas and otherwise feel at ease.