2015’s Top Addiction and Drug Songs

2016 is just around the corner, but here we give you a rundown of 2015’s top songs about addiction and drugs.

Over the years, drugs have also helped inspire many musicians as they compose and arrange their music. From the Beatles to Alice in Chains, Lou Reed to Third Eye Blind, drugs have become inspirations and subjects for a lot of the popular music hits.

And this year is no exception. As we prepare for 2016, here, we hand out to you the Top Addiction and Drug Songs of 2015 based from The Fix.

Addiction and drug songs

“Can’t Feel My Face” (The Weekend)

The chorus goes, “I can’t feel my face when I’m with you | But I love it, but I love it…We both know we can’t go without it.”

The song could simply be about being so happy that you go numb, but it’s more likely (and more obviously) about coke, as many of those who are familiar with cocaine would also believe.

The song continues, “And I know she’ll be the death of me, at least we’ll both be numb | And she’ll always be the best of me, the worst is yet to come.” When it comes to using, many people get into it with enough familiarity about its effects to know that it’s really bad for you in the end. Yet despite this, you still continue to use.

Abel Tesfaye, the guy behind The Weekend, has admitted to singing songs about his personal experience, which involves a lot of partying and taking drugs from weed, pills, and ketamine. He shares in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, where he was described to be “a drugged out R&B mystery man” in the past, “I never needed to detox or anything. But I was addicted in the sense of Fuck, I don’t want to spend this day without getting high.”

“Chandelier” (Sia)

A first cruise through this song would have you envisioning literally getting on a chandelier, really having no care in the world and just living in the moment. This is especially true with the lyrics, “I’m gonna swing from the chandelier | I’m gonna live like tomorrow doesn’t exist.”

However, listen through the rest of the lyrics, and you’ll see that there’s more to it than going YOLO: “Sun is up, I’m a mess | Gotta get out now, gotta run from this | Here comes the shame.” Yes, another one of those drug songs, indeed.

Sia’s lyrics come from personal experience, and Chandelier reflects the life of a suffering party girl who struggles to keep herself together. In an interview with Billboard in 2013, she shares how she was seriously addicted to Vicodin and Oxycodone. “I was always a drinker but I didn’t know I was an alcoholic. I was really unhappy being an artist and I was getting sicker and sicker,” she shares. Eventually, she sobered up, but only after a suicide attempt.

“I Can’t Drink You Away” (Justin Timberlake)

As the title implies, this country-sounding song is about drinking, or more aptly, about someone who tries to drown his pain with booze.

It goes, “Bottom of the bottle | To fill this empty heart up | A thousand proof | Don’t change the truth | I tried it but I can’t | I can’t drink you away”

While it’s hard to tell if this song is about Timberlake’s personal life, the song appropriately describes the struggle many people go through as they resort to alcohol in order to deal with their problems.

“S.O.B.” (Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats)

Playing out more like a rowdy, country/party song, S.O.B. can fool anyone with its upbeat rhythm. However, a second listen and a closer look at the lyrics will actually tell you that the song is really a sad story of a man who is struggling with alcoholism.

The song goes, “Son of a bitch | If I can’t get clean | I’m gonna drink my life away.” More of the lyrics would describe shaking hands, the feel of bugs crawling all over, and the life-or-death battle with giving in to the addiction.

The song furthers, “Now for seventeen years I’ve been throwing them back | Seventeen more will bury me | Can somebody please tie me down | Or somebody give me a goddamn drink.”

Looking at Rateliff’s live performances, you would see that he carries the look of a man who’s been through a lot. He hasn’t hit it big in the music industry until recently, despite his many years as a full-time musician.

In a campus.ie interview, he says, “My path in life has definitely shaped the way I write things. I mean I feel like I’ve probably always had that darker side in me, because even without any of the circumstances surrounding my life growing up, I would still be someone who would battle depression and things—an addiction problem.”

“The Hills” (The Weekend) 

If there’s a song that beautifully juxtaposes addiction and an illicit affair, it’s The Hills by The Weekend. Oddly enough, addiction is truly like having a dangerous affair. You know it’s wrong but you can’t get enough of it. You like the thrill of doing something bad, and that adds to the whole thrill of it.

In The Hills, The Weekend talks about an affair and an addiction at the same time, and how the line between the two often blurs in his life, which can be said of anyone who has been in Tesfaye’s shoes as well.

It goes, “Always tryna send me off to rehab | Drugs started feelin’ like it’s decaf.” Many who have used or are dependent on drugs would know this feeling. The craving for drugs and how the same amount of drug wouldn’t ever be enough and so, they need to get higher doses as time passes.

However, the saddest line of the song would probably be in the chorus: “When I’m fucked up, that’s the real me | When I’m fucked up, that’s the real me, yeah.” This is perhaps one of the lines that many people who are using drugs or alcohol can relate with. They feel like it’s when they are high or wasted that they are truly themselves, therefore justifying their substance abuse. However, this is so far from the truth. Having lower inhibitions, not thinking straight, and having poor judgement are all not the same as being the real you.

“Beautiful Drug” (Zac Brown Band)

Like many songwriters and musicians throughout history, the Zac Brown Band likens drugs to a lover, or vice versa. Either way, the comparison often ends up boiling down to the drug being a metaphor for a lover. And, in the case of real-life addicts and substance dependence, the drugs become substitute for love and relationships.

In The Beautiful Drug, Zac Brown sings, “You’re such a beautiful drug | I can’t get enough | Addicted and I’m dying for a hit of your love”

In his Rolling Stone interview, Brown insists that the song is about a woman, who to him is a beautiful drug for any guy who is in love.

Well, whatever the case is, love can also be a powerful drug and drugs can also be a powerful substitute for love.

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2016 is just around the corner, and it’s time to think back on your life and how you want to live for the next year, and the years ahead. If you or your loved one is struggling with drug or alcohol addiction, make a change now.

Call or text us at our confidential helpline at 09175098826.

 

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