Wiki
-
Length
3:39
This breezy, serene ballad with orchestration that channels Brian Wilson features Michelle singing about the sweet loneliness of teenage love, waiting for your crush to return. Incidentally, “Kokomo“ is also a Beach Boys' song about two lovers enjoying a relaxing vacation in Kokomo island in the Caribbeans, as a form of escapism.
Here, the song’s subject’s crush left their home town (presumably Kokomo, Indiana) to pursue their dreams (“showing off to the world the parts I fell so hard for”), while the subject stayed, passing time and “popping wheelies”, feeling lonely and empty, wishing they could go back to a time when they were with each other. Michelle seems to be playing with the titles of the songs, creating a contrast between Kokomo, IN, a place to escape from; and Kokomo Island, a place to escape to.
“This is my favourite song off of the album. It’s sung from the perspective of a character I made up who’s this teenage boy in Kokomo, Indiana, and he’s saying goodbye to his high school sweetheart who is leaving. It’s sort of got this ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ vibe, which I like, because Kokomo feels like a Beach Boys reference. Even though the song is rooted in classic teenage feelings, it’s also very mature; he’s like, ‘You have to go show the world all the parts of you that I fell so hard for.’ It’s about knowing that you’re too young for this to be it, and that people aren’t meant to be kept by you. I was thinking back to how I felt when I was 18, when things were just so all-important. I personally was not that wise; I would’ve told someone to stay behind. So I guess this song is what I wish I would’ve said.“
Track descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
