Gabriel has said of the song's meaning, "It's about being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get ... It's about letting go." time only for the last two measures of each chorus. It is performed in the key of B major with a tempo of 102 beats per minute, with Gabriel's vocals ranging from F♯₃ to G♯₄.

According to Song Meanings and Facts , According to Gabriel himself, the lyrics of In Your Eyes, which are inspired by the African tradition, can either refer to a romantic relationship between a man and a woman or a divine relationship between someone and his God.

Gabriel composed lyrics about a man whose unemployment causes stress in his domestic relationship. He had seen a TV program about the consequences of unemployment on family life, and said that it "played into my own problems at that time.

With evident ideas of where he wanted his own music to go, Gabriel left in 1975, initially to take a break from music but then work on his own solo career.