Lorde's "Sober" Is A Depressing Anthem

Are you zombie-ing through your job Monday to Thursday and only really living for your Fridays? Then you should sift through Lorde's "Sober" lyrics, which provide an appropriately sobering reality-check on how partying hard on the weekends can take a toll on your emotional health. The 20-year-old singer first premiered the second track from Melodrama at a pre-Coachella concert and, given the lyrics, this no longer seems like a coincidence. It feels like a fantastic cautionary tale to deliver to festival goers before they party a little too hearty.

Lorde herself has tweeted about "Sober," arguing that it "was so important to me because it felt like pop music i hadn't heard before, this sprawling brass & strange vocal syncopation" and describing what sounds like her pride in how "we expressed the emotions so purely- it's leaning & drawling, juvenile & triumphant - impressing someone then embarrassing urself." And if you're unsure if the song's refrain really is about weekend hedonism, she clarifies "that late-saturday-night declaration "WE PRETEND THAT WE JUST DON'T CARE / BUT WE CARE" tasted as fresh & new in my mouth as ice water." But let's not get ahead of ourselves: let's take this verse by verse.

Intro

Limelight, lose my mind

Limelight, lose my mind

Limelight, lose my mind

(When you get to my high, when you get to my)

Limelight

On one level, the introduction gives very little away. There's the refrain of "limelight, lose my mind" — which feels like a reference to the pressures of fame. Still, there's hints of what is to come with "When you get to my high." This mishmash of fame, drugs and mental health issues is what the song is going to be grappling with, so, while it's mysterious, it's also totally appropriate.

Verse One

Oh, God, I'm clean out of air in my lungs

It's all gone

Played it so nonchalant

It's time we danced with the truth

Move along with the truth

Ooh (hey)

We're sleeping through all the days

I'm acting like I don't see

Every ribbon you used to tie yourself to me

Either the "they" referenced are out partying every night or suffering from heavy depression, since sleeping all day is one of the symptoms of depression. The ambiguity feels intentional, as if perhaps these two possibilities are feeding into each other: the people addressed are partying too much and that's making them more depressed.

Pre-Chorus

But my hips have missed your hips

So, let's get to know the kicks

Will you sway with me?

Go astray with me?

(Ah ha)

This isn't just about depression and partying, it's about a toxic relationship. The singer is sexually compelled by the person she's addressing ("my hips have missed your hips") but it doesn't sound like the pair have a healthy influence on each other, since she asks if they will "go astray with me." But wait, in the chorus the themes of the song really kick in...

Chorus

King and Queen of the Weekend

Ain't a pill that could touch our rush

(But what will we do when we're sober?)

When you dream with a fever

Bet you wish you could touch our rush

(But what will we do when we're sober?)

These are the games of the weekend

We pretend that we just don't care

But we care

(But what will we do when we're sober?)

When you dream with a fever

Bet you wish you could touch our rush

(But what will we do when we're sober?)

The first line matters: they're not King and Queen of their own little world, but of the weekend. They're only royal in the context of the weekend. Lorde gives us further indications that their hedonism on Saturdays and Sundays (and Fridays I guess) reaches excess. And, all the while, that repetition of "what will we do when we're sober?" sounds increasingly desperate. This isn't just fun anymore, it's a way of life.

Verse Two

Oh, God, I'm closing my teeth

Around this liquor wet

Limelight, lose my mind

I know you're feeling it too

Can we keep up with the ruse?

Ah ah (hey)

B-bodies all through my house

I know this story by heart:

Jack and Jill got f*cked up and possessive

When they get dark

The opening two lines are distressing. Since "closing... teeth" isn't the sort of thing you expect to do around a liquid, it suggests that she doesn't just drink because she likes it, but because she's physically hungry for it, daubing the image in shades of addiction. She ends on a nightmare rendition of a nursery rhyme with "Jack and Jill got f*cked up and possessive," implying that their heavy partying, whether with drink or drugs, is having a bad influence on their relationship.

Bridge

Midnight, we’re fading

'Til daylight, we’re jaded

We know that it’s over

In the morning, you'll be dancing with all the heartache

And the treason, the fantasies of leaving

But we know that, when it's over

In the morning, you'll be dancing with us

(Limelight, lose my mind, limelight, lose my mind)

Oh, dancing with us, oh, dancing with us

(But what will we do when we're sober?)

The worst of the bridge is its repetition. It's sad and it's awful and yet the repetition of "you'll be dancing with us" suggests it's become the nighttime equivalent of Groundhog Day. Why? This is answered by the other repeated refrain "...what will we do when we're sober?" Partying, no matter how monotonous, still feels like a better alternative to sober, real life with problems and no distractions. And that's scary.

So if this song sounds all too familiar, maybe this is the pop gods' way of telling you that you should be taking some you time. Partying's great. Just as long as you do it because you want to, not because you need to.