Of the song’s success, Passenger told Elle “I can’t really explain how much of a shock it was.” The aspiring sing-songwriter had spent five years busking,

playing street gigs, and traveling around making no money at all; playing at tiny venues and tiny pubs around Europe and Australia. So it wasn’t even in my universe for it to happen. It didn’t even feel possible for me to have a song on the radio, let alone something that was going to turn into this absolute sort of global monster. So it was such a flipping shock.

“Let Her Go” has been described as a melancholic song, with somber lyrics that redouble the moody affect of the main instrumentals, a soft acoustic guitar.

The song was famously featured in a 2014 Budweiser commercial that aired during Super Bowl XLVIII, which depicted a puppy with a preference for the iconic Bud Clydesdales to his human owners. It was used also in the Season 7 finale of CBC’s Heartland.