Swimming Pools

Definitely one of Sivan’s most underrated songs in my opinion. “Swimming Pools” completed his 2015 “Blue Neighborhood” album, although it was added as a bonus track which is probably why it hasn’t gained as much attention as some of his other songs. The album, in my opinion was really split into 2 types of songs: sad, reminiscent songs about emotional detachment (or lack thereof), and dreamier songs that gave the listener a sense of distant autonomy. Swimming Pools falls into the later category.

The song first starts off with the repeated phrase: “I’ve been running, running, run.”

This opens the scene by giving the listener an image that’s already in action. The speaker has been doing something that requires him to be running which automatically puts a question in the listener’s mind: is he running away or towards something?

First Stanza: Here we see that the speaker’s goal is to get to “empty swimming pools” but there’s something in his way. He calls it a “wave” which matches the watery theme throughout the song. The significance of what he means by reaching empty swimming pools is introduced as the mental state of essentially getting over someone. He knows he has to stay strong and “plant” his feet in order to be successful in detaching the lifestyle or person that the speaker was in that phase of his failed relationship, or he’ll fall back into a desperate cycle. This is what he know he can’t outrun.

Next Stanza: The lighthouse here serves as a guidance pointing him in the right direction, but he has to fight through the wave first. The significance of the wave is hinted in the line about draining out things (and person) that he used to find comfort in. His goal is different than it used to be, and it requires him to purge every last part of the person he was to get to ground zero again.

Last Stanza: Here he’s basically saying that confronting his attachment to his former lover will tempt him back and drain any confidence/assurity he had to move on. He has to convince himself that life will be better once he gets through this.

The song continues and ends in a way that commences the race between the speaker and those temptations. He sings “empty swimming pools” several times before repeating “I’ve been running” many more times to visualize the process of seeing his goal and striving to achieve it; the mental strife taking more effort than the actual end goal.

We leave the speaker running from the past to propel himself forward to a better future.