Release date: October 19, 2018
Lyrics
Not really sure what I’ve gotten into
My hands are shakey just looking at you
It’s 3am now everyone’s leaving
And I’m just frozen
I gotta catch you in the street while you’re trying to leave
At the door of your car with my heart on my sleeve
Listen, I don’t always act this way
Usually I would have more to say
I let the moment get the best of me
Can you feel my nervous energy?
I don’t always give myself away
If you had caught me on a different day
I let the moment get the best of me
Can you feel my nervous energy?
The moon is lighting up the windows
I kinda like you, but it’s not that simple
Cause I don’t know you, the way I want to
But I get inside my head sometimes
Parked in the street and your eyes are on me
Got me feeling so good that it’s harder to read you
Reflection & Info
First song off the debut album, and it starts out with a bang. Structurally, this song is strikingly similar to Do Right: track starts with a short preview of the breakdown, Karina cuts immediately into the verse, music dims down for the chorus, heavy breakdown, repeat verse-chorus-breakdown, and one more chorus-breakdown. It is amazing to note that even with so much energy and content, both songs only weigh in at roughly 3 minutes and 15 seconds each. Yet, despite the coincidental and technical similarities, these are two extremely different songs.
Vastly different from all other prior releases, this track is very much a rock song that showcases the band’s guitar equipment and proficiency with tone. It’s not very often you’d hear palm muting, ambient guitar, and power chords all so crisp and clear in one song as in “Nervous Energy.”
The meaning behind the song seems self-explanatory. The “Nervous” part is mostly about how the singer is going through some kind of relationship anxiety involving the other person, and the “Energy” part is the fact that these thoughts are what’s keeping the singer mentally hyperactive (…probably physically also because it’s 3:00am in the first verse). I get the impression that the singer is not actually explaining any of this to the person directly, but the whole song is just a list of her racing thoughts that she either is rehearsing in her mind or wishes she could say. If you are an over-analytical or “deep-thoughts” type of person like me, you probably know what I mean by that. She is “just frozen” after all.
…Or maybe she is talking to her partner… because she does say, “At the door of your car with my heart on my sleeve.” Tricky. Who knows?
I think the most amazing part about how this song is written is that the lyrics only describe the nervousness that the singer is experiencing. We have no idea why the singer is nervous and what led up to this point. The entire song captures and depicts only the feeling itself.
TL;DR & Related Media
• If want to hear a lot of impressive guitar tone, you’ll love this song.
• This is about a person who is extremely nervous in the presence of or with respect to another person.
• We have no idea why the person is nervous.