Are you a fan of Joshua Bassett on High School Musical: The Musical- The Series? Then you’ll love his musical chops even more with the release of the music video for his new single, ‘Smoke Slow.’ A soulful song about unhealthy flings, here are the top 5 catchiest and most tear jerking lyrics from the song.
1. ‘We’re buying more time/While we kill ourselves as we both inhale’
Undoubtedly the most telling of lyrics in this song, this likens the outcome of a casual fling to the long-term effects of smoking. More specifically, as you and the other person casually date each other for longer, feelings inevitably arise, making it much harder to maintain emotional distance from each other, and therefore causing insidious pain for one another.
2. “Addiction to a love that never was and never will be anyway”
This one was particularly poignant. When casually dating someone, even if you both know it’s not going anywhere, you still like having the other person around. This creates the so-called feeling of ‘addiction’ to the idea of emotional intimacy.
3. ‘She holds my guitar as I pluck out a melody/There’s only so far we can go”
This lyric spoke to a uniquely painful feeling that anyone who’s experienced unrequited love will understand. When you’re in a casual relationship, find yourself developing feelings for the other person, and they aren’t as all-in as you are, that’s when you know things are headed downhill.
4. ‘Play with fire/Pick me higher’
Even if you know it won’t last, a casual relationship can still feel thrilling when you and the other person are together in the same space. It can give you your own personal high. Therefore, the whole thing can feel like you’re playing with fire, as Bassett puts it.
5. ‘Makin’ believe there’s a future/Is it naive to think we could work?’
Touching on another relatable, core source of hurt in casual relationships, this speaks to the longing for a future, a long-term relationship. And when we develop hopes for something more serious with someone who doesn’t want the same- regardless of whether they’ve been upfront about that or not- we tend to feel stupid and naive for thinking this might actually become something more than what it is. This lyric, paired with this visual, gives a lyrically and visually literate realization of how that feels.
