Songfacts®:

• This was released in the UK as a promotional single on November 3, 2011 and as the fourth single from Making Mirrors in Australia on February 27, 2012. Gotye did a stop-motion video to accompany the song, which finds him going through the motions of his daily routine. Melbourne director Darcy Prendergast and his team at Oh Yeah Wow created it, the same people that made his clip for "Eyes Wide Open." Prendergast explained the promo's concept to Music Video Theory: "The music video ties in with the thematic premise of the song; demonstrating the depressive elements of repetition – we see our protagonist unable to break free of his own routine. I wanted the rotation to be almost like a clock – turning in accordance with the day, but on every pass, he falls slightly behind and before long becomes a victim of his own making. I also shared with Wal (Wally De Backer - aka Gotye) one of my favourite animations: Tango, which became an initial point of reference... Its brilliant use of loops is truly a wonder."
• This song has a lot going on, which the listener might not necessarily pick up. Gotye told Artist Direct: "Possibly, there didn't end up being room in the mix to hear a lot of the instrumental elements that I'm actually quite into behind the vocals. There's a lot of vocal conversation going on between harmonies and lead vocals in different ranges. If you heard 'Easy Way Out' as an instrumental, it's interesting to hear the details of what's going on."