"Love Can Heal" was debuted live back in 2016 during the
Rock, Paper, Scissors tour in North America. Gabriel wrote the song as a tribute to British politician
Jo Cox, who was murdered that year. Prior to her assassination, Gabriel had encountered Cox at a leadership conference. In a press release, Gabriel explained that he included the track on
i/o because he believed it fit with the theme of "being connected to everything". According to Gabriel, the track is a "dreamy, experiential piece with some abstract imagery" and "a carpet of sound, a tapestry where things are woven together, but not necessarily supposed to stick out, but just form part of a whole". Gabriel aimed to create a "sensual, gentle environment to suggest a loving place out of these textured sounds" and developed a series of chords around a repetitive
motif. Around two months after the demo was first created, Gabriel overdubbed some
wine glasses, which he had affinity for ever since he experimented with the
Fairlight CMI in the 1980s. Aspects of the song, including the backing vocals from
Jennie Abrahamson and
Linnea Olsson, were taken from a live performance in
Edmonton on 24 July 2016. Olsson's cello was also taken from the same performance, which first appears during the intro and mimics the melody found on the chorus. The song largely adheres to a chord progression of
E-flat major,
G minor,
F major, although the song modulates to
C major during the
bridge and features an occasional E flat
major seventh. ==Artwork and music video==