“The Fall” is the sixth track on Lovejoy’s 2021 EP titled ‘Pebble Brain.’ The song is a euphoric mental breakdown about general life around us. We see the world burning around us, but we chose to smile and keep on with our regular routines because there is nothing else to do!
The ‘Pebble Brain’ EP follows the debut EP ‘Are You Alright?’ by the British band Lovejoy. The band consists of four members, Wilbur Soot as the frontman and lead singer, Joe Goldsmith as a guitarist, Ash Kabosu who plays bass, and Mark Boardman who is the band’s drummer. The ‘Pebble Brain’ EP contains seven tracks and was released on October 14, 2021, after being delayed for several months.
The premise for “The Fall” song is that when you reach the top, there is nowhere else to go but down. The higher you go, the harder you fall. On top of this, the song lyrics are decorated with all the mental issues that we face today more than ever before. The music of this song sounds irregular and chaotic, just like how our brains function these days.
Listen to “The Fall” by Lovejoy
Buy ‘Pebble Brain’ Album on Apple Music & Amazon
Lovejoy “The Fall” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review
The song is a homage to everything disastrous around us, especially for teenagers of today. The world is chaotic and it moves so fast around us that none of us can actually catch a break in our lives.
Two decades ago the kids played outside and on the streets and broke their legs and arms. Today, we play online and surf the Internet and break our minds. The latter is worse. Why? Because no one except ourselves can see the broken parts. It’s inside us.
There must be more to this
So leave those sinker states and let’s book a holiday
There must be more to life than being stuck between four falls 90% of the human life, work for others for over a quarter of the life, and rake up piles of psychological problems and medical bills. The singer proposes a holiday off of these “sinker states.” ‘Sinker’ is slang for something/someone who drowns or sinks due to their own weight. The ‘states’ or cities are drowning with systematic imprisonment. Maybe a holiday away from all this will heal our souls?
Next, Wilbur Soot sings how he is painting all the cities in blue, a color often used to describe emotions such as loneliness, fear, depression, and anxiety. ‘Painting cities’ is an expression used to describe the act of spreading something around. So, Lovejoy, however ironical the name is, spreads dull moods all around the city, because they are already boring creatures.
In the pre-chorus of the song, Lovejoy sings about the fall. Wilbur Soot talks about what others see versus what he knows it took to get to where he is today. Outsiders only see the highlight reel. They only see how marvelous the view from the top must be. But they will never know the blood, sweat, and tears that fell behind the scenes to climb to the top. Only you will know this.
And wе’re so calm, but we’re (F*cking scared, f*cking scared)
We feel like this line from the chorus of the song summarizes what the youth of today go through on a daily basis. The world is pretty scary and cold. But we cannot show signs of weakness. We put on our masks and move on with our day. But inside, we are pretty bloody scared.
In the second verse of the song, Lovejoy tackles another popular topic among the teens of today. Sertraline and Prozac are both antidepressant medications. This is what the world has pushed the youth to be–depressed and lonely. Mental illnesses are more common than at any time in history (it could also be that mental illnesses are finally being accepted as illnesses and are being treated now than ever).
Even money cannot buy us out of the mental issues that we face today. A lot of the time, these issues do not stem from poverty. A lot of the time, these issues stem from having a lot of material things and slacking hard on human connection. Today, we sit behind the walls of our computers and we are invincible. This also emits near-zero emotions, empathy, and love towards one another. When you look into the eyes of another human being not 5 feet away from you, you would tend to hold back a lot of things you would say to them, which you would have typed on a keyboard without a second thought.
“But the treadmill still loops”
We do understand that a lot of the psychological issues stem from the lack of human connection and reliance on material things for happiness. But there doesn’t seem to be a way to make things right. Maybe this is the natural course of evolution for humankind. Maybe this generation is the guineapigs of the transformation from human connection to Internet connection.
In the final bit of the song, Lovejoy takes us back to the singer’s situation. He is at the top and his brain is high on medication. Was this what life had in store for him? Be successful beyond imagination but also be dumped with a ton of mental issues?! Was there no better path for him?
Let us hear what you think about this song in the comments below. Check out the complete lyrics on Genius.
DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE EASILY TRIGGERED BY SUICIDE ETC.!!!
I think that this is pretty accurate, but I also think that ‘the fall’ has a double meaning as in: from the mental issues the narrator is faced with so much depressive thoughts that they only see one way out, the fall from a hight place. After all: “There’s nowhere else to go but” down…
That probably sounds really dark, but it was what I thought of, so I thought I might as well share it here.
i love the meaning and the way you put it into words but im pretty sure this song is about the fall of lmanburg im not exactly sure but i do know that its smth canonical
The Minecraft content is separate from Lovejoy, Lovejoy is it’s own thing.
Hey! This is about Britain’s politics- the “painting the counties in blue” is about the rise of the conservative party (who are probably one of the worst governmental parties in the UK, they’re pretty bigoted and corrupt), and stuff like “the ramblers” (e.g. tourists who don’t know about the country’s downfall) and “how many grocers does one county need” (a reference to Britain’s huge food poverty problem) are all references to how everyday life in Britain is often romanticised by people who know nothing about the country at all. There are also other references like “across the penines” which talks about the political and financial divide between Lancashire and Yorkshire, two of the Northern counties which are separated by a mountain range called the penines.
I hope this gives more context!! 🙂 I’m from Britain so i kinda get the references
Hi, I’m so glad that I came across this comment I’ve been actually searching for the analysis of Lovejoy song the fall, because I’ve heard that it completely relates in how badly England were ruled, which leads to history thank you so much!
this is mostly wrong, at least from what i know about the song. It’s a mostly political song, and you missed like 90% of the references
yoo this is so awesome!