For What That’s Worth

Yuné Pinku “Night Light”

The first few times I heard this song with absolutely no context the lyric that jumped out to me was “everybody’s saying we’re in love for what that’s worth,” sung in a vague and inscrutable tone. Is this something that’s so self-evident that it’s boring? Is she unsure of the situation? Is everybody dead wrong? Does she feel any sort of way about this?

A bit later I read that this song was written from the perspective of an AI and I can see how this makes sense. Yuné Pinku’s lyrics sketch out a simulated consciousness that responds to stimuli and has some intentions and imperatives, but doesn’t have much else filling up the spaces between incoming data and pre-coded responses. The character experiences “fun” and “love” as facts and doesn’t interpret much beyond acknowledging “this is happening.” Pinku’s track is like a little dance club snowglobe the AI exists in, singing dance music clichés over the chorus and engaging with existential thoughts like “it’s fake to die, we’re all still alive” like they’re just logic puzzles.

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