Song Meaning
Forgetting" immediately plunges the listener into a disorienting soundscape, marked by "Detuning bass drums everywhere." The lyrics quickly establish a sense of displacement and a strange, cyclical return. It's a narrative about losing track of time and place, only to find oneself abruptly back.
The initial verses paint a picture of subtle unreality, where even familiar elements feel off-kilter. This sense of alienation culminates in the unsettling image of a "face is backward" in the mirror, suggesting a distorted self-perception or a fundamental shift in reality. The pre-chorus then abruptly snaps the narrator back into a recurring state, highlighting a loss of agency.
The craft here masterfully conveys this disorientation. The fragmented phrasing of "And next thing I know / I am" creates a sudden, almost involuntary shift, mirroring the abrupt return. The repeated chorus, centered on the phrase "Back again," becomes a hypnotic mantra, emphasizing the cyclical nature of this amnesia and the recurring loss of memory about past experiences.
What makes these lyrics resonate is the surprising turn towards acceptance. While the initial verses are unsettling, the chorus finds a peculiar comfort in this oblivion. The specific mention of the "L.A. night" grounds the abstract concept of forgetting in a tangible, perhaps glamorous, context where "Forgetting's nice." This shift from confusion to a kind of blissful ignorance suggests a deliberate embrace of detachment as a coping mechanism or even a desired state.