Caroline Polachek and Patrick Wimberly made Something, their sophomore record, over 18 months between the back of an antique store in Brooklyn and the basement of a family home in Streatham, London. The world and characters of Something, slowly emerged- overtones of manic revenge contrast with a dark brooding guilt ("Sidewalk Safari", "Amanaemonesia", "Take it out on Me", "Guilty as Charged"); pastoral, almost psychedelic love meets its own inevitable, blue future ("Met Before", "Frigid Spring", "Turning", "Cool as a Fire"). In contrast to Chairlift's debut album's Does you Inspire You pop-dreamscape, created in the dark, after school and work, the band uncovered the songs on Something in the daytime, drinking coffee.

Producer Dan Carey's studio is part of the world of Something, full of giant plate-reverb boxes, mint green reel-to-reels salvaged from dismantled BBC studios, plastic human heads which are used to record and simulate the listeners location in approximation to the sound. The head was sitting in the back seat of Carey's car, a microphone on each ear, while Caroline drove, screaming the "I'm gonna hunt you down… I'm gonna run you down" lyric of "Sidewalk Safari". Perhaps this incident lends itself to the fact that Something recalls the anthemic driving albums of the mid-90's (Weezer's 'Blue' album comes to mind). Larry Fitzmaurice (Pitchfork) says that "...Chairlift go for 'big' – like, really big – and succeed on every level".