The Water’s Getting High And I Don’t Care At All

Earthgirl “Lovesick Lobotomy”

Limerence is a relatively new word. It was coined by the psychologist Dorothy Tennov in 1979 to describe a state of intense obsessive infatuation, but it’s only come into common use over the past few years as it has entered the lexicon of mental health social media. Like any word or phrase that suddenly catches on, it’s very useful in communicating something broad yet specific. As in, anyone can have a crush – that’s sweet, that’s light, that can lead to something. But limerence is like an affliction, a destructive state of constant fantasizing that spikes stress and pushes you further from reality. Big difference!

The chorus of Earthgirl’s “Lovesick Lobotomy” goes “limerence, glimmering, lovesick lobotomy, cinnamon, how you taste on top of me…I’m sick, I’m sick!” The verses get deeper into a state of constant fixation, but I feel like that “how you taste on top of me” pushes the song away from a literal definition of limerence because this is obviously a song about an actual physical relationship. But who cares when the word sounds so good? It’s an incredibly singable word and it’s particularly satisfying in this wonderfully melodic vocal stack. The palette is very Charli XCX but without any of the aloofness. Even when this song gets robotic, the emotions sound highly combustible. Toss a match at this song and it erupts into a fireball.

Buy it from Amazon.