Themes

The End discusses themes of romance and anxiety. Fry had dealt with panic attacks amidst the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in March 2020 and expressed his feelings of anxiety in the album;^[1][8] he found writing the music to be therapeutic. The album is narratively organized to start with excitement and romance, followed by feelings of anxiety and loneliness, and concluding with peace and self-healing. To express self-healing he ended the album with "Fix You" by Coldplay, one of Fry's favorite songs.^[1] The second song on the album, "What If", is about a lesson he learned from therapy, where although there is a worse outcome to every situation, there is also a best outcome.^[4] "Waltz for Sweatpants" depicts what Fry enjoys most about love, which is "staying at home all day in my sweatpants" and not caring what others think about his relationship.^[6] He considered "Fine" to be the most depressing song he has ever written, and created it with the intention of showing others they are not alone in the way they feel.^[9]

He expressed the concept of "the end" in the album to have a double-meaning: the first being the feeling of "the end of the world" during a panic attack, and the second being the conclusion of his career as an independent artist.^[1] The album was released under Decca Records US, concluding his time as an independent artist and his first release with a label.^[1] Fry had recently had a child,^[3] and themes of beginning a new chapter of fatherhood would also inspire the themes on the album.^[1]