vine ”. I still remember the nice and deep talks I had with some of my friends , just sitting on a bench and sharing our aspirations , even showing some of our darker sides at night . Lorde herself continues to declare the genuine and steadfast affection for her soul mate through the last verse of the anthem : “ You ’ re the only friend I need / Sharing beds like little kids / Laughing till our ribs get tough / but that will never be enough ”. Opening up her heart , she asserts that only that one bosom friend matters to her in her once-lonely journey of growing up . Childhood , which is now dead and gone , is brought back to life when a pair of friends share a night talking about dumb thoughts and deep thoughts .
Lorde , now twenty-one , released “ Ribs ” in 2013 when she was just sixteen years old .
but we are all confined in some sense . We once said we were never going back to school , but we all pay for part-time studies that will sustain our full-time jobs . We felt annoyed by our parents , but now we find ourselves deeply indebted to them .
“ We ’ re reeling through the midnight streets ”. One reels when he walks side to side as if he is about to stumble , while there is usually nothing but tranquility and aloneness in a midnight street . With graduation approaching , I feel more and more reluctant and uncertain about my future every day . There are always some roads on which I must walk alone , and I can tell I will fall someday . When these moments come , the last two lines of the verse —“ I ’ ve never felt more alone / It feels so scary getting old ”— will probably hit me hard .
“ There is one track called ‘ Ribs ’, which I still really like … [ the track ] was a warm hug ”, said the singer who was still 16 years old in a MTV interview . Given how scary and crazy getting old is depicted , how could “ Ribs ” be warm ? Real friends and soulmates made this possible .
Before the last verse , the song seems to have no correlation with the song title . Be ready to be shocked by Lorde ’ s wordplay : rib , as a noun , means the bones protecting our organs as we all know , but it also carries a meaning of joking and laughing as a verb . It is evident that roaring laughter is always the best medicine to soothe the pains we experience in adolescence , and the protection of our souls .
“ Ribs ”, through its lyrics , ends with gentle warmth , despite the genuine bitterness and insecurities expressed in the beginning . Lorde is simply a lyrical genius who poetically articulates what youth is about . This underrated song goes beyond a mere song and rather serves as an anthem of adolescence .
A language geek , a music nerd and an educator studying English education .
I am Sing and I sing .
“ We can talk it so good / We can make it so di-
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