Futile Devices

Futile Devices opens The Age of Adz, a gentle acoustic song with what Pitchfork heard as Stevens reconnecting with a past love, before the album turns electronic. Alexis Petridis praised its delicate guitar figure and Simon-and-Garfunkel melody. Stevens has not explained it; some critics read it as being about the struggle with one's sexuality.

For Call Me by Your Name, Luca Guadagnino asked for it specifically and had it remade on piano to sit close to the film's young protagonist; Thomas Bartlett, as Doveman, made the remix. That version, the upload in the hypersongs web, went gold in France. Stevens played the song on his 2010 and 2015 tours.