Sometimes I sit in the smoking section
Hopin' one rogue spark will land in my direction
And when you stomp me out, I scream and I'll shout
"Let it happen, let it happen, let it happen"
[Verse 2]
And sometimes I feel like an inland ocean
Too big to be a lake, too small to be an attraction
And when you wander in and start to flail a bit
I let it happen, let it happen, let it happen
[Verse 3]
Sometimes I stand with a pistol in hand
I fire at the grass just to scare you right back
And when you won't run, I'm mad but I succumb
Let it happen, let it happen, let it happen
[Verse 4]
And sometimes I go to the edge of my roof
And I think I'll jump just to punish you
And if I should float on the taxis below
No one would notice, no one will know
[Bridge]
And then I think
What could be better than love, than love, than love?
And then I think
What could be better than love, than love, than love?
The closing track on MASSEDUCTION sees St. Vincent dive into the darker themes of the album. The subdued production and somewhat hesitant vocals reflect the uncertainty and nervousness that Vincent carries as she unearths the thoughts of suicide, as well as the substantial pressure she feels in life.
She further broke down the song during an interview with Pitchfork in October 2017, adding:
It really always comes down to the work. People ask me, “You won a Grammy, did that change the way you approached writing this album?” The honest answer is I felt the pressure that I put on myself to make something that was better than whatever I had done before. But I’m lucky in that I get to do a thing I love. There’s no way to control or reverse engineer acclaim or exponential fandom, so I still just put my focus on the thing that I can control, which is trying to make the best work I can make. I also really try not to think about myself in abstract terms—the holographic version of yourself that gets put on magazines or websites—because it’s never heartening or productive. My ethos has always been: If you make it, they will come.
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
When asked by NPR about whether she considers “Smoking Section” to be a dark song, Clark replied:
Yeah, it sure is. I’ve been [depressed]. I mean, I was there, so I wrote it.
- 1.Hang on Me
- 2.Pills
- 3.Masseduction
- 4.Sugarboy
- 5.Los Ageless
- 7.Savior
- 8.New York
- 10.Young Lover
- 12.Slow Disco
- 13.Smoking Section