My two favorite things about music are the beats and how relatable lyrics can be. It impresses me more when artists write their own songs, especially about personal feelings and experiences. ‘Come Back To Earth’ is a song that I really related to when I was going through a bit of darkness five months ago. When I listen to it now, I feel so many different emotions. Mainly I feel sadness; this song reminds me of pain from what I went through and felt, but I actually mainly feel sad for Malcolm. I genuinely feel the pain and sadness in his voice, and the depressive state he had to have been in when writing and producing this song. I definitely feel chills when I listen to this song…it’s crazy what a single person can be going through and no one even knows, but here he is laying it out for all of us to listen to.
I love this song so much, and it’s weird to love a sad song, but I love it for what it means to me, and how it makes me feel that Mac and I were connected for those two minutes and forty two seconds. I really want to break down most of the lyrics in this song, just to point out how truly deep this song is and why it’s so relatable for so many people.
My regrets look just like texts I shouldn’t send.And I’ve got neighbors they’re more like strangers,
we could be friends
Here the first lyrics of the whole song is something that we’ve all done. He lays out that the words he has texted were some that he shouldn’t have sent. Not only can you regret sending certain texts, but we can also look back and regret some of the things we say to others. Also, the second and third line scream isolation. To me it sounds like he was very much alone in that house alone, but also in a sense alone in his head and alone in what he was feeling and going through.
In my own way, this feel like livingSome alternate reality
A lot of us are aware of the heavy drug use Mac would do, so to me, this is a reference to that. When on that kind of stuff you feel like a different person, numb from the pain that is currently going on in life. So many people escape reality to find happiness in toxicity. He probably found this “alternate reality” comforting from what he was going through at the time, and it was his form of “living” and coping. Sadly enough, a lot of depressed people (not everyone) go to drugs for relief.
Yeah, oh the things I’d do
To spend a little time in hell
And what I won’t tell you
I’ll probably never even tell myself
These last two line could be an underlying meaning of denial. Obviously it’s unclear what about, but I think he was fully aware of what issues he had, but didn’t want to address them head-on. And I think that’s a very relatable issue we all have on the inside. We all have our demons and flaws, but some of us aren’t willing to bring attention to them to either fix them or live with them. I think he was aware of all the issues that were hard for him, but didn’t want to admit them to himself.
And don’t you know the sunshine don’t feel right
When you inside all day
I wish it was nice out, but it looked like rain
Grey skies and I’m drifting, not living forever
They told me it only gets better
This is the second hardest part of the song for me, because of how chilling it is. He obviously spent many days cooped up in his home, and maybe didn’t get out very much. Again, definitely a thing we do when depressed. The last line screams truth, because I’m sure he was told that specific line multiple times. It was definitely something I was told when I was going through my rough patch. I just wish he could have seen that light at the end of the tunnel because life really does eventually get better.
I just need a way out of my head
I’ll do anything for a way out
Of my head
Now THIS is the hardest part of the song for me personally. I relate to these lines so so much just because when you are going through something, your brain is always eating away at you, and your thoughts don’t ever stop running around, and you seriously just want it to end. I probably cried so many times listening to this song, because I really felt the pain along with him. There were so many times where I wished I could get out of my head and stop the chaotic thoughts that were constantly there.
Being in an unhealthy, unhappy, hard and depressed state of mind is truly the hardest thing to do. It’s hard to do what seemed like “normal” activities at one point in your life, and it’s hard to try to pull yourself out of it. I truly relate to this song on a different level, because life can be so fucking hard sometimes. This song is a masterpiece, honestly. The music is not like his normal upbeat sound. The melody with the lyrics all flowed so well together. The words are relatable and complex. The title alone: ‘Come Back To Earth’ is also probably another remind for others and himself to pull yourself out of this “alternate state”, this hard time, and bring yourself back to the present and push yourself through what you’re going through. This song isn’t a “you got this, you can pull through!” type of song. It’s on the other side of the spectrum. It’s telling us what you feel and think and go through when you’re depressed and extremely down, and for that, I think it should be highly respected and honored.

The Mac we should all remember.









