"Ribs" by Lorde // Song Review
On "Ribs", Lorde captures the feelings of adolescence in a way like no other has before. She was only 16 years old when this song came out - to have had this level of deep insight and sage wisdom at that age to write a song like this is so remarkable. In many ways it is a bittersweet lament about growing up and becoming an adult, but also not wanting to leave youth behind. "Ribs" was inspired by a crazy house party she, her sister, and their friend threw when her parents were gone. It is what she later referred to as "the kind of party people write books about," at one of her shows. It is filled with so much nostalgia and gives a sense of yearning for the past and fear of the future. "This dream isn't feeling sweet, we're reeling through the midnight streets and I've never felt more alone, it feels so scary, getting old", she sings in the chorus with almost a sense of urgency.
It is featured as the fourth track on her 2013 debut album, Pure Heroine, which is such a revolutionary record that pushed pop music forward in a way like no other. Lorde truly paved the way for so many artists and the legacy she solidified for herself with this album alone is so remarkable and inspiring. "Ribs" continues to be a defining piece of the legacy that album holds in so many ways.
She has talked about the emotions that have inspired this song many times over the years, I found a quote from her at one of her shows from around 2014 talking about it in detail that I felt captured this song so perfectly. She said "...there's something scary about doing something that is in a different world than the one you know. My whole life I've been doing the things that kids do, you know, fucking around and not having any responsibility. It's scared me to think of having one foot in that adult world because who says that we can go back? Like, can you be a kid and still do adult things? Do you have to leave that world behind? And this is the thought that keeps me up at night, all the time."
It is so vividly written and captures such a specific moment in time that it allows the listener to be transported into themselves. From the soundtrack of "Lover Spit" by Broken Social Scene on repeat, to the messiness of spilling drinks and reeling through the midnight streets, it feels like the wild and fluorescent memories of youth are preserved forever in this song. She has always excelled as a songwriter in being so specific in her music, her lyrics are so visual and really takes the listener to the time and place she is writing about in such an immersive way. "Ribs" very much feels that way, listening to it feels like you are invited into to the very house party that inspired that song.
The distinct feeling of existentialism that comes with growing up, and in many ways the disillusionment of time itself, is depicted in such a specific way that has never quite been replicated by anyone else. For a 16 year old to be singing "it feels so scary getting old" might seem almost paradoxical at first, especially to someone older who might instinctively think it's dramatic for someone with so much time ahead of them to feel that kind of dread - but that is exactly what makes it so powerful. Those feelings are very real at 16, and just as pertinent at that age as they are at any other, it may just take a different shape as one enters adulthood. "Ribs" powerfully captures that universal, heavy feeling in a way that continues to resonate no matter how old you are.
On her third album, Solar Power, Lorde wrote an incredible song called "Secrets From A Girl (Who's Seen It All)" that references all of the emotions and fears she was experiencing at this time in her life in a new perspective. She says she wrote it for the girl she was when she wrote "Ribs" at fifteen years old. In an interview with Spotify Lorde said, "I was listening to 'Ribs' and thinking about who I was at that time in my life. I was so apprehensive about what was to come. I took the two chords from that song and reversed them. This is future me talking back and saying... 'it's going to be okay'". I love that it is kind of a message to that fifteen-year-old girl she was, as well as to everyone currently going through the same emotions assuring that everything will work out the way it's supposed to.
A beautiful moment is in the final refrain of "Ribs" when she sings, "You're the only friend I need, sharing beds like little kids, and laughing till our ribs get tough, but that will never be enough" and her repetition of the final line in the outro. It is such a powerful and deeply moving song, and always takes me back to the time I got to hear it live on her 2018 Melodrama Tour. It was such a unifying moment to be there with her and thousands of other people jumping and singing those words so loudly.
A beautiful moment is in the final refrain of "Ribs" when she sings, "You're the only friend I need, sharing beds like little kids, and laughing till our ribs get tough, but that will never be enough" and her repetition of the final line in the outro. It is such a powerful and deeply moving song, and always takes me back to the time I got to hear it live on her 2018 Melodrama Tour. It was such a unifying moment to be there with her and thousands of other people jumping and singing those words so loudly.
Other than the extremely popular singles from this album, I didn't really dive into the rest of Pure Heroine until about four years later in 2017, around the time she released her sophomore album, Melodrama. I always believe that you will find music at the time you need it most and that's how I feel with this album. It was right before I turned eighteen years old, about to start college, and I still can't even really put the feeling into words, but her music impacted me so much during that time. It came at such a crucial and formative time for me, songs like "Ribs", "400 Lux", "A World Alone" and "Bravado" literally changed my life and shaped so much of the way I perceive the world around me. Before I discovered Lorde, I never really felt like I was able to truly relate to a lot of the music I was listening to in a deep way. Or if I did feel like I related to music, all of those feelings were magnified when I found Pure Heroine and Melodrama. At this exact time in my life, I also discovered Bleachers, who are now one of my favorite bands ever and I associate my connection to their music so closely to my connection to Lorde's music. She was singing about the things I was experiencing in real-time, and I continue to relate so much to the message of her music. It was a time of a lot of change and this album really put so many of those complex emotions into words. So much of Pure Heroine is about a young girl trying to make sense of the world around her, with messages I deeply connected with back then and still to this day. So much of that is represented in "Ribs", and the feelings this song evokes in me is truly like no other. It is truly one of the best songs ever written.
Thanks for reading! Check out my full review of Pure Heroine + many more reviews of Lorde's music linked below, along with more from my song of the week series here.☆
Photo Credit: Lorde, Universal, Republic
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