Released: 2024
“Dark Vacay” by “Cigarettes After Sex”, undeniably, paints a chilling picture of a relationship bogged down by substance abuse, self-abnegation, and lingering loneliness. The song offers a stark portrayal of a twisted summer love, highlighting the darker side of youthful freedom and R&R that is often glossed over in the pop music landscape.
The song kicks off with the verse, “In summer, I’m living on pills and lines / With someone I love, I don’t really like.” Straight off the bat, the lyrics establish a complex emotional landscape. The narrator self-medicates with “pills and lines,” implying drug use. The line, “With someone I love, I don’t really like,” presents a convoluted, arguably toxic relationship dynamic, suggesting a profound disconnect between love and likeability in this context.
Amidst this dysfunctional reality, we see a reference to “Château Lafitte Rothschild,” a renowned and highly expensive wine, signifying a decadent surface that cloaks the inner turmoil. This juxtaposition plays into the song’s overarching theme of disparity between appearance and reality.
The chorus goes, “So come on, come on, dark star, been loving you and I / Can’t get enough, dark star, we don’t need Brazzers.” The “dark star” is a possible metaphor for a toxic partner or a destructive habit (like substance abuse). The mention of Brazzers, a well-known adult entertainment production company, brings in a tinge of sexuality, perhaps another toxic theme in the protagonist’s life. The phrase “we don’t need Brazzers” might reflect the narrator’s emotional bankruptcy and consequent disillusionment with physical pleasure.
The consistency of the refrain, “Feel the world around you, feel the world surround you / Feel the world around you, feel it all around you crash,” serves as a sobering refrain throughout the song. It paints a cyclical narrative of self-awareness and subsequent self-destruction, solitarily echoing the painful ebb and flow of the protagonist’s life.
In the ensuing verses, the song continues to depict the destructive behavior that includes heavy drinking while on Adderall and the chilling image of a suicide hotline’s voice. The “voice from the suicide hotline” signifies the protagonist’s mental health struggles, underscoring the severity of his circumstances.
Overall, “Dark Vacay” is a haunting ballad of pain disguised as pleasure, alarmingly echoing the often unspoken realities that many people face in their personal lives. While it might not be the breezy summer anthem you’d traditionally expect, it offers a potent shot of realism that cuts through the gloss of pop music culture, leaving us with a bitter aftertaste that’s hard to shake.
