The Chainsmokers - A 'Closer' Listening

Enough and more has been said and written and Reddited and subtweeted -and not nearly always kindly- about EDM duo and self-professed frat bros, The Chainsmokers. I'd previously scrolled over some of the hate in passing but it wasn't until late on a February night last year, at a house party in New Friends' Colony Snapchatted in its entirety by the 30-odd early 20-somethings that attended it, that I'd had a chance to actually listen to one of their songs in any seriousness. 

It's funny because he's frat.

The song was Closer - The Chainsmokers' runaway hit and ubiquitous soundtrack of 2016- and hand on heart, it deserves every download or stream or whatever fancy new metric determines pop music greatness these days. It's an ohrworm of a single, and the 'smokers are, on said evidence, Ubermenschs of post-genre EDM. The DJ at the party, dressed in an unseasonal Hawaiian shirt and thigh high shorts combo, must have felt the same because he kept going back to it every 4 tracks or so in trite parody of the song's protagonist who... we'll come back to that in a bit. 

Now somewhere between finding out that the considerably younger object of my right swiping had invited me to his own birthday party for our first date and that Snapchatted stories have a deliciously transient lifespan of 24 hours and only go out to people who follow you meaning I was trapped in a real life echo chamber the average age of whose population was below Delhi's legal drinking age, I started paying attention to the lyrics of our eponymous single. 

And that's when it hit me. 

On first listen, Closer is a song about two moderately self-destructive people who are still into each other four years after they broke up. A watered-down Gretchen and Jimmy from You're The Worst, at best. Get a little closer though, and suddenly it's so much more. At a time when renaissance men and women have been mourning the death of story telling in popular music on every platform and website except the ones on which the demographic that actually makes or breaks a pop culture phenomenon spend time on, the 'smokers have only gone and put into words, knowingly or unknowingly, the reigning zeitgeist.     

Gretchen dropping existential truth bombs as always

Here's verse 1: 

Hey, I was doing just fine before I met you

I drink too much and that's an issue but I'm okay

Hey, you tell your friends it was nice to meet them

But I hope I never see them again 

Let's break it down. 

First up, "I was fine before I met you"; or in other words, Denial, as the next line will tell you.  

What better way to start off the anthem of a year that witnessed a climate change-denying clown being elected to the office of the most powerful person on the planet, right? It gets better.   

Line 2: "I drink too much and that's an issue but I'm okay" - Alcoholism, and denial.

Translation: "It's locker room talk. It doesn't mean anything."  

 Line 3: "..tell your friends it was nice to meet them | But I hope I never see them again" - Passive Aggressive.  

Translation: "Bitch I'm building a wall." 

Verse 2:

I know it breaks your heart

Moved to the city in a broke down car

And four years, no calls

Now you're looking pretty in a hotel bar

And I can't stop

No, I can't stop

I'd like to break up this verse into phases leading up to a bigger moment (the Chorus), as below. 

I know it breaks your heart (Empathy)

Moved to the city in a broke down car (Self-pity)  

And four years, no calls (Ghosting) 

Now you're looking pretty in a hotel bar (Validation) 

And I can't stop (Confession of helplessness) 

No, I can't stop (Repeated, affirmative confession = Threat)  

The narrative is pretty standard fare for two exes bumping into each other and feeling physically attracted to each other, sure. Put it in the context of the class bully wooing the freaks and geeks to vote for him however... 

   

 Pre-chorus:

So baby pull me closer in the backseat of your Rover (Proposition)

That I know you can't afford (Negging)

Bite that tattoo on your shoulder (Seduction)

Pull the sheets right off the corner (Seduction) 

Of the mattress that you stole | From your roommate back in Boulder (Negging) 

We ain't ever getting older

This verse is textbook pick up artistry. A tacit expression of interest followed by a derisive comment, followed by an intrusive expression of interest followed by more negging to distract from the micro-aggression, all of which leads up to (drum roll please) the chorus. Look a little deeper though and it's a lot more calculated. Unlike the average neg (Eg: "Your friend is so pretty"; "I can't believe you shop at H&M") which is meant to disorient and possibly discomfit the target, the 'smokers sort of neg you on. They pull you into a shared perfect vision of the world by not putting you down for your indiscretions, but merely letting you know they're on to you without actually judging you for them. You spend too much? Don't we all? You stole from your roommate? We get it, we do. "We're on the same team," they seem to be saying, "but I'm the one with the power." And in any case, none of this destructive behaviour really means anything in the long run because.....    

Chorus: 

We ain't ever getting older

We ain't ever getting older 

We're never getting older? Straight up delusional. Ooh, we're so young and pretty and perfect that we'll only ever relive this moment again and again with no consequences whatsoever. We're the Nietzschian eternal return,  we're Milan Kundera's unbearable lightness, we're Starbucks and snowflakes and the fucking Mannequin challenge. 

"We're never getting older." Also, the greatest promise you can never keep. 

Translation: "Make America Great Again" 

Now the next verse is sung by guest artist Halsey in reply to Verses 1 and 2, but remember we're analyzing the songwriting itself and not the story it tells us. The singer is only performing a role that has been written for her. We're examining the narrative, not the story.  

Verse 3:

You look as good as the day I met you (Acknowledgement)

I forget just why I left you, I was insane (Self-doubt)

Stay and play that Blink-182 song | That we beat to death in Tuscon, okay (Acceptance) 

    

Remember, these are the words put in the performer's mouth by the writers (of whom Halsey is admittedly one). So you've got a little acknowledgement action going in line 1, then comes self-doubt with "I forget just why I left you", followed by the kicker ("I was insane"), and BOOM! We have a word for that, don't we? For distorting someone's reality so much they start doubting their own sanity? Gaslighting. That's what it's called- gaslighting! Derived from the 1938 play GasLight, which I highly recommend if you haven't read it. Just some friendly fraternity gaslighting before the inevitable collapse: Acceptance. I mean not even people who grew up listening to Blink 182 in their prime would willingly listen to them today. These two were taking off their pants and jackets to Blink in 2012? That's truly psychotic behaviour. 

The rest of the song sort of sizzles and shudders and shimmies into a syrupy chorus-loop that will make you want to hit replay the moment it stops. It's a great fucking song, you guys. Not only did The Chainsmokers make a truly infectious tune, they snuck in some real world commentary for the ears of the only mutant subgroup of real people most likely to be unaffected by it. It's true that I had to consume a non-advisable amount of Molly handed out by my host (it was clear by this point that he had only intended to ensure a full house by inviting a few Tinder randos to his party), but I couldn't help looking around and thinking that we old-timers give Generation Z an unduly hard time. I mean their jokes are woke, their privilege is unapologetic, their entitlement is self-aware, and the struggle, however imagined, is real as fuck.