The beautifully dark elements of this album come into play as Kalopsia begins. Its start is very slow and interesting, and provides a nice break from the nonstop rocking up to that point.
“Kalopsia” is also a defined delusion: it’s when people think what they’re seeing is more beautiful than it actually is. The song was written to Josh’s daughters and is about escaping dark days.

The inspiration for the song came from Josh Homme’s friend and fellow lyricist Arctic Monkey’s Alex Turner, with whom he occasionally exchanges words or phrases for lyric ideas. During the making of the album, Homme asked Turner to send him a word to which he replied with a text message containing the word “Kalopsia” and its definition. In an interview from 2013 Homme stated:

He kinda just didn’t know how much he’d hit the nail on the head for where I was at at the time.

In an acoustic session on WDR 1Live in 2017 Homme further explained the meaning behind the song :

The hardest thing to do is tell someone you love them, because you have to put yourself out there. And when you really love somebody you basically say:“Whatever you have to do to me, you have to do. And I’m willing to let that happen.” So this song is partially about letting that happen and on the other side saying it’s okay.

Despite not being released as a single, the visual artist Boneface created a short animation for the song.