On June 13th, AURORA discussed the meaning behind Track #8, ‘The Dark Dresses’ Lightly, and Track #13 ‘, Starvation’, to her fans on Weibo.

In her words, ‘The Dark Dresses Lightly’ is, “A song about addressing the elephant in the room or about actually facing the real problem.”, about “breaking a conflict down to one simple thing and then trying to understand each other rather then to hurt each other.”

She emphasises that, “This is a very important song for me.”

On another occasion on The Eras Podcast with Abbie McCarthy (AURORA – music after death, big nights out and Mother Earth, released on June 17, 2024), she describes ‘The Dark Dresses Lightly’ as a personification of pain.

“I was thinking about having a discussion with pain, saying…let’s sit down, I’m going to pour me and you a glass of wine.
And now…we drink the wine together, and I say something, then you say something.”

She uses contrast between the direct image of drinking wine together and pain with the image of people drinking wine alone to drown out their feelings.

“…We drink more, and the words are bigger and the wine is flowing over, and suddenly, the wine takes us around the room.”
“…I’m also thinking about all those people that often just sit alone and drink wine to deal with their emotions”

Overall, the lyrics highlight the importance of openly discussing our conflicts/disagreements rather than fighting and causing more hurt over them.

Even though it may be painful to talk about these problems, there is more pain in continuing conflict without communication. Discussing the issues we face is a step toward understanding each other and bringing closure to conflict.

The lyrics are versatile and could apply to disputes of all scales.