The Bomb
Producers
You said this could have been the best thing
That ever happened to you
So you decided not to do it
Now you come back every summer
Like a carnivorous flower
And I stare at your hands in the heat and I
Think they are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen
But if I was free to love you
You wouldn't want me, would you?
Unavailability is the only thing that turns you on
Come here, baby, tell me that I'm wrong
[Chorus]
I've blown apart my life for you
And bodies hit the floor for you
And break me, shake me, devastatе me
Come herе, baby, tell me that I'm wrong
I don't love you, I just love the bomb
Buildings falling is the only thing that turns me on
I've blown apart my life for you
And bodies hit the floor for you
And break me, shake me, devastate me
Come here, baby, tell me that I'm wrong
I don't love you, I just love the bomb (Oh, oh, oh)
I let it burn, but it just had to be done (Oh, oh, oh)
And I'm in ruins, but is it what I wanted all along?
Sometimes, you get the girl, sometimes, you get the song
About
“The Bomb” is a song about Florence’s commitment to loneliness and instability (see her interview with Radio X). Its placement on the album follows the fairytale storyline of Dance Fever; Florence struggles through the process of wondering whether she wants to stop touring (see “King”), but on this track describes how the instability of producing and touring her music is irresistible, despite the life consequences it has for herself, her partners, friends and family.
Given Florence’s tendencies to want to hold on to her most vulnerable tracks, she almost removed this track from the album but decided against this due to protests from friends and family.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Florence Welch:
There’s a lot of nods, I think, to the previous records. All three of them are in this album, which is nice. Because I feel like somehow I’m bridging the gaps between all of them on this record, like all the things I’ve been interested in. This song is nodding to what I was thinking about, in terms of unavailability in people, in High as Hope in songs like “Big God”, with like the obsession of someone who’ll never text you back. Why is the person who creates the most space and gives you nothing the most appealing person? And really that’s because if you’re a songwriter, they give you the most enormous space for fantasy and you can write anything you want because they don’t really exist. Every time I think in my life I’ve been in a stable place, something or someone will come up and be like, ‘How do you feel about blowing all this up?’ It’s also a fear of growing up and a fear of getting older, because if you regenerate yourself constantly through other people by blowing up, changing everything, you never have to face ageing or death.
—via Apple Music
- 1.King
- 2.Free
- 3.Choreomania
- 4.Back in Town
- 8.Cassandra
- 10.Daffodil
- 11.My Love
- 12.Restraint
- 13.The Bomb
- 14.Morning Elvis