“Easier” is the bass-heavy, industrial rock & new wave influenced track that marks 5 Seconds of Summers first ‘solo’ release since their June 2018 comeback album Youngblood and after they co-wrote and provided vocals on The Chainsmokers “Who Do You Love” in Februrary 2019. Vocals are handled by frontman Luke Hemmings and lyrically, the track sees the band debate whether or not to stay in a toxic relationship.

The band first teased its release by posting a 15-second-snippet of the song on their Twitter. Signifying the track’s dark nature, the snippet was accompanied by visuals of band members chained up, drowning, and in a hall of photos ridden with flames.

In an interview with Official Charts, OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, who co-wrote the track, said he was “ecstatic” for the song’s release and that

I’ll put it this way, it has a little Nine Inch Nails in it.

The song has a hard rock feel, but with a relatively sparse arrangement. 5 Seconds of Summer told Rolling Stone it came about because there has been “a growing attention to industrial rhythm within the band.” They said that the track is “derivative of the driving drum groove” that’s heard on Nine Inch Nail’s track “Closer.” The band added that they were also inspired by dark, synth-heavy groups such as Depeche Mode and Tears for Fears.