Breakups will either make or break you.
You could look upon it as a learning experience; accept the mistakes you’ve made, get over your former lover, and move on with your life.
Sometimes, though, moving on seems like an insurmountable task. Why would you want to move on from a person that was, in your eyes, perfect?
But life and your former lover will carry on regardless, leaving you behind.
Newly formed ambient experimental duo So So Sun tackles this issue in their latest song “Somni”.
The title “Somni” is interesting; it means sleep in Latin. The song’s instrumentals echo this theme of sleep with their drowsy, deep, heavy sound. This effect is achieved by the blend of repetitive piano, light guitars, and an intensely rich, gravelly voice.
Wake me up when the world disappears.
Life is too painful to face, so the singer chooses sweet slumber to avoid facing that pain.
Wake me up when you need me again.
For the singer, life is not worth living without his former lover. The only reason he would awake from his deep sleep is if his lover wanted and needed him again. Otherwise, being awake and sober would mean facing his heartbreak and accepting his loss, something he’s not strong enough to do.
In the chorus, the repetitive piano and guitar riff dissipate, leaving behind the singer’s voice, which makes his words more poignant.
You make me forget breathing.
The singer can’t let go of his former beloved because she was like a drug that made him forget life’s miseries. Now his supply of that drug has run out, and he’s in heavy withdrawal.
You make me forget my health.
Love can make us feel blissful but it also has the power to control us and make us do things we wouldn’t normally do. The singer forgets everything with his lover, even his own wellbeing. He has stopped taking care of himself because life has ceased in his eyes. Why care about prolonging your stay here on earth if it’s an entirely depressing one?
I could fall from the heavens and land with ease with you by my side.
Here we see the delusional nature of the singer’s love in this hyperbolic line. He props his lover up on a pedestal, believing that all his problems would instantly be solved if she were with him again.
You make me myself.
The singer has completely lost his identity in his obsessive love for his beloved. He can’t function or even assert his individuality without her.
This line is repeated several times at the end, emphasizing the obsessiveness of the singer’s love.
The song’s title, the sedative instrumentals, and the neurotic lyrics all add to the feeling and theme of hypnosis. In doing this, So So Sun is suggesting that love is a kind of hypnosis; it brings your mind under its control, makes you do things you may not want to do, and only appears weird once you snap out of it.
“Somni” is a musical hypnosis.
