"Stand on the Horizon" features indie rock and disco-punk.[2] The song was written by Alex Kapranos and Nick McCarthy and produced by Kapranos and Norwegian DJ Todd Terje.[3] The song was labeled by Kapranos as something neither Franz Ferdinand or Terje have done before. He also called the ending of the song "a beautiful, uplifting piece of music".[4] The song is sampled over the opening credits to the U.S./Canadian situation comedy Loudermilk.