Reeling Through The Midnight Streets

Lorde “Ribs”

I have complicated feelings about hearing a teenager sing “it feels so scary, getting old,” but it’s clear that Lorde is aware of the irony, and connected to the emotional truth of that thought for a teen. “Ribs” is about the odd, awkward transitional stage between being a kid and becoming…well, I guess an older kid. A young adult, let’s say. There’s a push and pull between wanting to move on to something new, and regressing because you don’t want to lose the good parts of being so young and you’re scared of change. “Ribs” works well in part because Lorde allows this feeling, something that is easily dismissed by people as they get older, to be nuanced and ambiguous. It’s all the stuff you forget later on, but the complex feelings about change never really go away.

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