Saigon

In 'Saigon,' Luke Hemmings delves into the complexities of facing one's past and the emotional turmoil that comes with it. The song opens with a nostalgic reflection, as the lyrics 'Cover to cover, we read these lines / Can you remember? No sense of time' evoke a sense of timelessness and lost moments. This sets the stage for a journey through memories that are both cherished and painful, encapsulated in the metaphor of 'desert eyes'—a vivid image of desolation and longing.

The chorus, 'When facing the things we turn away from / We're chasing the way we were in Saigon,' serves as the emotional core of the song. Here, Saigon symbolizes a place or time of significance, perhaps a moment of happiness or a pivotal experience that the narrator is trying to recapture. However, the pursuit of this past is fraught with difficulty, as indicated by the line 'It's picked apart until there's nothing left of us to carry on.' This suggests that the process of revisiting these memories can be destructive, leaving the narrator feeling fragmented and unable to move forward.

Throughout the song, Hemmings uses powerful imagery and metaphors to convey the struggle of confronting one's past. The lines 'Pulling me under, decline and rewind / Board up my windows, tryna revive' depict a sense of drowning in memories and the futile attempt to revive something that is long gone. The repetition of 'Turn away' in the bridge underscores the instinct to avoid these painful memories, even as the narrator acknowledges the necessity of facing them. Ultimately, 'Saigon' is a poignant exploration of the human tendency to both cling to and shy away from the past, capturing the bittersweet nature of memory and the challenge of moving forward.