According to ‘Angels’  songwriter Tom Kimmel:

“The German film “Wings of Desire” made a big impression on me with its story of the angel who yearned to be human.

At that time I’d begun to embrace my own therapy and healing work, and in some essential ways I believe I was beginning to experience places where the physical and divine meet and mix things up. So much was cooking for me emotionally, intellectually, spiritually–and a number of my songs in that period were essentially explorations.

When I first showed a half-written version of this to Jennifer (my ex-wife and most frequent collaborator at that time), she said she didn’t really hear it, but later she called to say it had somehow gotten under her skin, so we finished it together.”