by Tame Impala · 2024
The song ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’ by Tame Impala is about the frustration and hopelessness of feeling stuck in a relationship where progress is impossible, despite wanting to move forward and holding onto hope.
This song has been Shazamed over 1,660,379 times. As of this writing, Feels Like We Only Go Backwards is ranked 164
‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’ by Tame Impala is a song that explores feelings of frustration and confusion in love. We’re going to talk about what the lyrics mean, how the song feels, and why it matters to so many people. ⬇️
️ The song’s atmosphere is dreamy and a little dizzy, like floating in slow motion through a memory you can’t quite shake. There’s a sense of being stuck, moving but not really getting anywhere.
The chorus, repeated like a mantra, is a confession of heartbreak and hope colliding in a loop: “It feels like I only go backwards, baby.” We all know that feeling—when every logical part of us screams “move on,” but our hearts drag us back to the same old longing. Hopes rise, hopes crash, and we’re left wondering if progress is just an illusion, chasing our own emotional tails.
The verses add layers to this emotional maze, with lines like “I know that you think you sound silly when you call my name / But I hear it inside my head all day,” showing how memories echo louder than reality. “Seed of all this indecision isn’t me, oh no,” he insists, as if blaming fate or some invisible hand for his inability to let go. Tame Impala paints indecision like a fog that settles over everything, making forward motion seem impossible, even as resolve flickers somewhere deep inside.
Ultimately, the song unspools the endless tug-of-war between what we want and what actually happens—between certainty and doubt, desire and disappointment, the head and the heart. It’s a cosmic joke, maybe, or just the way love works when hope refuses to die, no matter how many times we end up back where we started.
Sometimes, moving backwards is just another way of realizing we’re still searching for something real, even if the path is winding and strange.
Writer(s) of Feels Like We Only Go Backwards:
