The song was written by Emily Haines and produced by John O'Mahony. Haines said, "This song is the first of many that I wrote on the piano during my time in
Buenos Aires. It started out as a ballad but really came to life once we bumped up the tempo. My favorite part of the song is the kick drum sound in the middle section, it sounds like the drums are being played in a cathedral in hell". On November 5, 2008, Metric updated their website with a video on how Haines writes a song. The video follows Haines through Argentina on a soul searching journey to find creativity and herself. "The songs that I wrote here were the simplest and clearest writing that I've done in I think in my whole life", said Haines. "Help I'm Alive" was one of the first songs Haines had written in Buenos Aires. On January 28, 2009, the band made the acoustic version of the single available for download from their website. The acoustic version features Emily Haines on piano and James Shaw on acoustic guitar. The song reached number 26 on
Triple J's Hottest 100 of 2009. The song was remixed by
Blaqk Audio synth player and
AFI guitarist
Jade Puget. It was furthermore used in 2014 on the BBC as the music on the trailer to advertise the second series of
Line of Duty. The acoustic version of the song was featured in an online video for the United Network for Organ Sharing in 2016. The video shows a heart transplant recipient carrying out his donor's "bucket list". ==Single information==