Some people live for love, some die for it, and some simply go crazy because of it. In “Borderline,” Tove Lo manages to bring all three of these experiences together.
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“Borderline” – Tove Lo
What was Tove Lo singing? “No One Dies From Love“? Well, sort of.
On her last record Dirt Femme, the Swedish artist brought sadness into disco. She sang of a sad reality, made up of a heart unfit to contain too many emotions at the same time and memories too painful to be remembered. After these pieces (including her own “No One Dies From Love”) were collected on Dirt Femme, Tove Lo came back more powerful than ever, with a bizarre track where love and obsession become one. Its name is “Borderline.”
Some people live for love, some die for it, and some simply go crazy because of it. In “Borderline,” Tove Lo manages to bring all three of these experiences together. The protagonist of this song is a tremendously insecure person, trying to push away and at the same time keep close to the person they love – or rather, they’re basically obsessed with. It’s not just a pull away story, it’s being willing to die for the other person while at the same time feeling more alive than ever because of them. That exasperated love brings out our inner teenagers and makes us feel every moment as if it were the apocalypse and the origin of the world together. It is love in the most chaotic sense possible, it is pushing the other person to the limit with the hope that they will not give up the relationship.
Good people do bad things too
Pretend they don’t know, but they do
It takes one to know you’re mine
You and me, we are one of a kind, it’s true
I like to my feel my bones when they crash into my heart
I like the taste of blood when you’re tearin’ me apart
I like to push you to the edge as long as you say you’re mine
Borderline (Hey)
Directed by Brazilian director Nogari and shot in Mexico City, the music video for “Borderline” represents even better this concept of pure chaos. We see in fact a crash test dummy who kidnaps Tove Lo and begins an intense love affair with her. It is so intense and steeped in Stockholm syndrome that it ends with the two lovers in a car, in a mad rush to death. Literally. And from that very car (spoilers ahead!) rises triumphant, like the most resilient of phoenixes, our dummy. Exhausted, they show their true face. It’s Annie, star of the video for “No One Dies From Love,” of which “Borderline” can be called the spiritual sequel at this point.
A brief summary for those who do not know what we are talking about. In an undefined future, Tove Lo buys a robot named Annie, with whom she begins a love affair that seems to never end. Until she finds another robot, at least. Annie therefore rips (literally) her heart out of her artificial chest, but she still remains alive. And as “Borderline” shows, her feelings also remain.
Tove Lo’s new single is thus an interweaving of resentment, revenge and the most extreme consequences of love. Because no one dies from love, yes, but there are those who are capable of dying for the sake of it.
Tonight, for the rest of my life
I’m gonna be stuck on you
Hold on ’til I’m makin’ it right
No other love felt like you
I can’t give it up on this fight
I cross my heart and hope to die (borderline)
I like to push you to the edge
as long as you say you’re mine
Borderline
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