Say Lou Lou, formerly known as Saint Lou Lou, are a twin sister music act hailing from Australia and Sweden. Their songs are largely deemed as dream pop and synthpop (synthetic pop). They released their first single 2012 and their debut album, Lucid Dreaming, was released on April 6, 2015.
Julian, a haunting melody about broken love was part of that album. Peppered with lyrics about place and time, this piece on the departure and arrival of love sings many a truth. The famous Argentinian poet, Antonio Porchia, had this to say about departure, “Set out from any point. They are all alike. They all lead to a point of departure.” With that in mind, Julian’s setting out from: I’ll meet you in the city, a place not marked on the map, an unknown city / I’ll pick you up at night, a pre-determined time in the night but whose preciseness, a mystery – a time for secrets to I’ll stay clear of the light, for light can illuminate even the darkest of secrets.
During this point of both travel and departure, the persona claims to Julian: I’ll get us through the checkpoints, as though their love affair was something illicit, something that need only be done under the cover of darkness and secrecy, in an unknown city and at a time where many a person would lay in their beds, unaware, fast asleep.
To Porchia’s point about departure, they are all alike, so regardless of where this duo departs from, in the fabric of time and space, it does not matter, for eventually it will lead them to a point of departure.
Then, what happens once they reach that point? As the chorus illustrates:
Oh, Julian
Once we get across the border
Oh, Julian
I'll mend your heart
Oh, Julian
Once we get across the border
Oh, Julian
I'll mend your heart
Genius.com
For the point is the journey and the eventual healing. Then, once they get across the border (what kind of border?), the mending of the heart can begin, as though it were a physical thing to be stitched up and made right again. The type of border is also unclear, whilst the surface reading seems to indicate a literal boundary, looking much deeper, it could be the boundary of what both of them are willing and unwilling to do.
As a final word, the discussion of love and boundaries is something very pertinent in the world at large today. How much are we willing to go for someone we love? What would we cross in order to get what we get for love?
Ultimately, what would we do for love?
