Portland indie rock band STRFKR ('Starfucker', basically an ironic name choice to signal their 'anti-pop' distance from the music scene's general pretentiousness and aspirations for fame and financial success) can generally be counted on for juxtaposing philosophical lyrics with infectious dance-worthy layered synth melodies. Frontman Josh Hodges, who initially started the band as a solo project, described STRFKR's aesthetic as “dance music that you can actually listen to, that’s good pop songs, but also you can dance to it.”
For their fifth album, Being No One, Going Nowhere (2016), Hodges attempted to add a greater intellectual depth to the band's output, opting to write the album while dwelling in the scenic isolation of California's Joshua Tree desert. “In The End" evokes the kind of expansiveness you might experience while observing a star-spangled desert sky all by yourself, with its spacey, unwinding reverb-heavy disco beat. The song fleshes out the album's preoccupation with questions of self-identity, existentialism and 'cosmic freedom' by pointing towards how one's personality can be transformed in a relationship:
'She said I'd love something I can grow intoAnd I have good intentionsShe kept me up for her secrets and waning moonAnd now I can't rememberShe's soBadWith good intentionsShe's badWith good intentionsShe's badWith good intentionsShe's badWith good intentionsIn the endYou traded your heartFor anotherIn the endIt was there all alongUnder cover'
Lyrics:
Hodges and drummer Keil Corcoran claimed to have imagined the synth-pop gem as "a cross-dresser, alien-abduction-type thing" - a vision that is almost realized in the accompanying music video. Inspired by John Waters' transgressive cult films (especially those that featured the late drag star Divine), the video features two colourful drag queens robbing a bank and then showering their fans with dollar bills and confetti before law enforcement catches up with them.
