The song is a duet featuring lead singerJames Dean Bradfield and Nina Persson of The Cardigans, with additional vocals from bass guitarist Nicky Wire. According to the band they always had a duet in mind, because the lyrics have a question/reply style. "Some people think Nina Persson's in the fucking band," Wire noted. "Which is great, because they've homed in one something that's uplifting and glorious. And by the end of the year, they'll be listening to 'Archives of Pain'." According to Bradfield, the title was the last line of a suicide note left by a friend of someone close to the group. According to Wire, the song is in part concerned with the disappearance of Richey Edwards: "While I was writing those words addressed to him on Your Love Alone… something touched me at my desk when I wrote, 'I could have shown you how to cry.'" As with all Send Away the Tigers-related material, the cover image is from the photography book Monika Monster Future First Woman on Mars by Valerie Phillips. The lyrics reference British rock classics:
"You stole the sun straight from my heart" – Manic Street Preachers' similarly-titled hit from the album This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours.
"Trade all your heroes in for ghosts" – Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here".
"I could have seen for miles and miles" – The Who's "I Can See for Miles".
"You're as blind as a man can be" – The Beatles' "Nowhere Man".
"I could have placed us in exile" – The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street, and the disappearance of Richey Edwards.
In allusion to the song's style, Dave de Sylvia proclaimed "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" to be a "relatively straightforward call-and-response blues-rock number".
Release
The physical release was on April 23, but the song had already charted at number 26 on the UK Singles Chart on download sales. On Tuesday, Music Week reported that the single was due to hit number one on Sunday 6 May, after its physical release. However, it charted at number two, behind the Beyoncé–Shakira collaboration "Beautiful Liar". In Scotland, however, the single debuted at number one, keeping "Beautiful Liar" off the top spot for a third week. The single spent a total of 7 weeks in the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart, which makes "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" the best-performing single by the group in the Top 40 in the UK, alongside "A Design for Life". Outside the United Kingdom, "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" reached the top 20 in Ireland, New Zealand, and Norway; in the latter two countries, this song was the band's highest-charting single. In Persson's native Sweden, the song peaked at number 48, becoming her only chart appearance away from the Cardigans. Elsewhere, the song reached number 66 in Switzerland, number 78 in the Netherlands, and number seven on Flanders' Ultratip chart. In Switzerland, it was their only charting single. The single received a 12-inch vinyl release as part of Record Store Day 2017.
