"when we were sober" is about a relapse wrapped around a breakup. The narrator is angry at someone who lied in their bed, then invites someone over to share free pills on the couch. The anger is a cover. Getting high is the last way the narrator knows to be close to the person they lost, and the song ends begging "save me."
The first thing the narrator swears is "I'll never forgive." By the second verse they "love to talk about you, my love." Both lines are true at once, and the whole song lives in the gap between them. Somebody broke a sober streak over a person they can't let go of, and they'd rather call that person a liar than admit why the cups are full again.
The chorus opens swinging.
"I don't know why you cryin' if you lyin', lil' bitch?"
That's a slap. It sets the narrator up as the wronged one, the one who got played, the one with every right to be cold. Then the next line drops the fists for a second.
"What's the point of me tryin' if the lion is dead?"
The song never tells you who or what the lion is. The way I hear it, the lion is whatever used to make the fight worth fighting: the pride, the strength it took to stay clean, maybe the relationship itself. If that thing is dead, trying is just pain with no payoff. Look at how it pairs with the line after it, "what's the point of you lyin' inside in my bed?" Trying and lying rhyme, and both questions start with "what's the point." The narrator's effort and the other person's betrayal get filed under the same word: pointless. A fan could fairly argue the lion is a real person, a nickname for someone gone, and nothing in the lyrics shuts that down. Either way, something that roared is silent now.
Then comes the confession, delivered with a shrug.
"And I was sober for while, but I'm high, bruh"
That "bruh" is doing the lying. It wants you to think this is no big deal. And notice who owns the sobriety. The title says "we," but every lyric says "I." Nobody else in the song ever claims those clean days. The "we" only exists in the title, which means it only exists in memory.
Verse 1 is pure front. The soda that puts them "on the couch," the Xans they love the taste of, the fakes going straight in the mouth, the "one hundred rounds" threat for anyone who talks too much. It's loud on purpose. Then the verse ends somewhere strange:
"Hold up, don't you wanna come to my house? / I got pills for the free, We could slump on the couch"
The couch shows up twice. First the narrator sinks into it alone. Then it becomes an invite. Nobody is named, but that invitation is the tell of the whole song. The narrator can't rebuild "we" sober, so they try to rebuild it high. Free pills, an open house, a place to slump together. It's the closest thing to a love letter the verse allows.
Verse 2 breaks all of it.
"Crack my skull from withdraws / I get flashbacks of you in my car"
The bravado is gone in one line. Withdrawal hits, and what comes flooding in is the other person, in a car, a closed-up space where it was just the two of them. "That's facts, I miss your love." Then: "You'll scratch, scratch, scratch at your arm." That itch belongs to the other person. They were in this too. So the "we" was real once, two people fighting the same pull, and that's exactly why losing them sends the narrator back to the cups.
The worst line has no pills in it at all. "And my mom still brings you up, and it sucks." A mom innocently asking how that person's doing. It sucks. That's the whole review. Right after, the anger flips inward: "hate the fact I wasn't enough." Put that next to "Fix my wrongs, still wrong" and "I'll never forgive" starts pointing somewhere else. The person the narrator can't forgive might be the one in the mirror.
So when the chorus comes back unchanged, it isn't unchanged anymore. "Lil' bitch" sounds hurt now, not tough. And one word moves.
"I'm twenty-three by the trees with a noose hung"
The first time through, it's "twenty-three by the trees," a picture of a place, scenery, something that could be about anyone. By the later choruses the narrator adds "I'm" and steps into the frame. Put next to "rainy clouds every time, know I'll die young," it's someone telling you plainly they've pictured the spot, the age, the rope. There's no poetry to admire in it. It's a person saying out loud where their head goes when the high wears off. If you're playing this in your headphones at 2am with a streak counter you just reset, you already know that place, and you don't have to stay there alone.
The song ends on a word the lyrics can't make out, probably a name, and then "save me." After three choruses of never forgiving, never forgetting, calling this person a liar, the last breath goes to them. The narrator never needed the other person to stop lying. They needed them to come back and make the "we" in the title true again. The only honest line in the song is the one we can barely hear: a name, and a request to be rescued.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "when we were sober" by comehelpglo about?
The song follows a narrator who relapses after a stretch of sobriety while grieving someone who lied to them. It starts angry and boastful about pills, then collapses into withdrawal, flashbacks, and missing that person's love. It ends with a plea: "save me."
What does "What's the point of me tryin' if the lion is dead?" mean?
The lyrics never define the lion, so it stays open. Most likely it stands for whatever gave the narrator strength to keep fighting, like pride, sobriety, or the relationship. With that gone, the narrator sees no reason to keep trying to stay clean.
What does "I'm twenty-three by the trees with a noose hung" mean?
It's a direct image of suicidal thoughts, tied to the narrator's age and a specific place. The first chorus describes the scene from outside, and later choruses add "I'm," putting the narrator inside it. Paired with "know I'll die young," it shows how dark things get when the high wears off.
Lyric analysis powered by Scalpel.
Comments
Loading comments…