Song Details
- Album Release Date: 2012
- Genre: emo
Song Meaning of “Northway” by Drug Church
“Northway”; a song from Drug Church’s fourth album, Cheer, conveys a thematic message about trying to escape a certain period in the singer’s life. The Northway referred to in the title is I-87, a highway in the northern part of the United States, which could symbolize the singer’s attempts to physically put distance between themselves and their difficult past.
The lyrics pose a picture of the singer dealing with heavy guilt and regret. In the chorus, they sing “I could go there and pretend I was alright / I could go there with a smile, I guess” amidst guitars which build a raw intensity that conveys the heaviness of their emotional state. This lyric paints the image of the singer who wants to go to this place, somewhere they can make it seem they no longer feel the weight of their past. However, this is contradicted in the pre-chorus, where they sing “What I do, leave it behind” illustrating the feeling of being unable to escape the grip their past has on them.
The instruments in Drug Church’s “Northway” are key in establishing the emotional atmosphere of the song. The vocals carry out the aching story of regret while the drums are relentless in providing a steady beat to ground it. This intensity is only added to by the heavy guitars and bass that fill the backdrop of the song. The combination of these elements gives “Northway” a sense of urgency, an emotional journey unfolding as the song progresses.
The bridge of the song acts as an important turning point in that it has the most aggressive intensity, as if finally dropping the idea of running away to a place where the singer can escape their guilt, and instead confronting it. The lyrics state “If I must atone for where I’d come from / Then I must make it right”. This progress towards making peace with one’s self is concluded in the outro with the lyric “Time to come clean”.
Drug Church’s “Northway” is a song about guilt and the struggle to move past it, and the emotions associated with such a difficult journey. It provides the listener with a glimpse of the struggle of wanting to move on, but also the triumphant feeling of facing one’s guilt and overcoming it.