Cold War Kids lead singer Nathan Willett wrote this song about making the transition from austerity to having more of an appreciation for the finer things in life. "'Coffee Spoon' is kind of about how in relationships and internally there is something really great about being frugal but it is also easy to be chintzy," Willett said. "To give little and need little. I think the idea of being ascetic was always appealing to me, but then I had to learn how to shed some of that stuff … to 'spend.' So a coffee spoon in a china room was a metaphor for learning to value precious things."