She was the girl with the string around her neck
-ing with the boy who could only give her less
It could be more if she learned to never expect
-ing and now it's she, it's her and him and then a baby
Next the wedding bells won't ring, but she could care less
How you exist when you're living in a dreamworld
(Dreamworld)
Lyrics: Genius
With these opening lines of Rilo Kiley’s dream pop tune, Dreamworld, one picks up the subtle nuances of dual meanings directly peppered into the lyrics, where the enjambment is used to create something that is almost unreal.
Rilo Kiley features Jenny Lewis (vocals), Blake Sennett (guitar and keyboard), Pierre de Reeder (bass guitar), and Jason Boesel (percussion). The romance between Jenny and Blake is highlighted in terms of the music they make, and akin to Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams, these songs are about broken lovers and their broken dreams:
“Late-era Rilo Kiley getting synthesized and glossy, just like late-era Mac, who they were constantly compared to. As a California band fronted by romantically involved songwriters who split years before their band did, Blake Sennett and Jenny Lewis had a leg-up in the backstory department too. Here, they share a lead à la Buckingham/Nicks over spangled guitars, singing of crumbled love and dreams, two of their elders' lyrical trademarks.”
Rolling Stone
Drawing a comparison between the two, it can be said that it is not only the sonic quality of both songs, but also the similarity of romance between each band’s leads that reminds us that in life imitating art, art also imitates life.
An aptly titled portmanteau allows for this song to flourish between the vague possibilities of tomorrow, the solid firmness of the present and the painful recollections of the past. What are these “dream worlds”? Do they exist solely between the vague waking hours and the vivid lands of sleep? Are they on the astral planes of religiosity and imagination? As the world-famous sleep scientist William Dement puts it, “dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.”
So when we create these “dream worlds”, and for the sake of simplicity, have them in the realm of sleep, where our state is not only subject to vulnerability but also the tempering, where do we draw the line between the reality of dreams and the dreams of reality?
Existing in such a “Dreamworld”, these lovers think of the various possibilities. What if life had just worked out that way and not this? That is the most pertinent question that the song addresses.
