Song Details
- Album Release Date: 2012
- Genre: emo
Song Meaning of “Equilibrium” by The Jealous Sound
The Jealous Sound’s song ‘Equilibrium’ addresses the feeling of stagnation in an emotionally grey area of an unsettling situation. The song’s lyrics seem to follow the story of a relationship struggling to stay together, confronting the reality that one of them is determined to move forward while the other is fighting to remain at a standstill.
The song opens to the realization of facing a stalemate, and the singer’s distorted vocal presence in the track conveys the mental turmoil one could feel in such a delicate situation. Metaphorical references to either side as the “choice between the sun and moon” and “teeter-totter” evoke a picture of a tug of war between the two partners, as they both try to find peace of mind in their dilemma.
The song’s bridge ramping up with a sense of positive and culminating emotion before the chorus conveys the moment of peace in which it seems that either partner might have won the internal battle, until “it comes down again” to the chorus and the lyrics, “It’s like two sides that can never gain/ it’s an equilibrium”. There is a level of resigned acceptance to the situation, perhaps from hearing the other’s wishes to walk away, and while the idea of equilibrium suggests a state of balance, it can also reflect on the yin-and-yang depiction of opposing forces butting heads, resulting in a distressed departure from this relationship.
In a case of reaching an uneasy agreement, ‘Equilibrium’ gives a voice to the lack of closure felt in such a fractured state of being. The song captures the resigned, reflective emotion of enduring a unclear, yet familiar outcome. The track leaves us with the bittersweet lingering of having to find a compromise in the end.