“Be My Mistake” is about an insignificant hookup after, or perhaps even during, a relationship.

The band’s frontman, Matty Healy, told Pitchfork:

“Be My Mistake” is just about guilt. It’s about when you are a young person and you struggle sometimes to figure out what you really want. And sometimes, like a lot of things, it requires you to make a mistake before you actually understand what you have. And then maybe you push people away, and then you realize that the idea of a casual relationship with somebody is just not really something that you want.

He mentions Nick Drake as an influence on the song’s acoustic feel.