Songfacts®:

• The closing track of Melodrama is an atmospheric electro-pop anthem about a hedonistic teenage party. However, Lorde pierces the fun-filled scenes detailing dancing, drinking and sex with stabs of melancholy. She wants to say that however euphoric these shindigs might feel, there's no escaping the late teenage years are far from perfect.
  
  All of the things we're taking
  'Cause we are young and we're ashamed
  Send us to perfect places
  All of our heroes fading
  Now I can't stand to be alone
  Let's go to perfect places
• The song features co-production from Jack Antonoff, who worked extensively with Lorde on Melodrama. Lorde explained the track's inspiration in a Facebook post:
  
  "I was living in New York during summer last year, writing Melodrama. I'd ride across the Brooklyn Bridge every day, or sit on the subway uptown in the heat, then go back home to New Zealand winter for a week at a time to party with my friends. My life was like a weird little etch-a-sketch I kept scribbling on and resetting. And all last summer, I couldn't shake the feeling that everyone I knew or saw was searching for something - trying to transcend the news and the screaming pavements, drinking that one drink hoping it'd get them someplace higher. This song comes from that endless cycle of evenings and the violent heat of the summer. It took us a very long time to get right, from an aching piano demo to where is it now. It's close to my heart."
• The Melodrama album tells the story of a single house party and this song summarizes the record's message. Lorde explained to Genius:
  
  "Another big realization of the last year for me – 'I think I'm partying so much because I'm just dreading sitting at home by myself hearing my thoughts hit the walls.'
  
  I think parties are a really interesting mental exercise/take on a few different layers when you're feeling like this. Kind of what the album is about."