.png)
Introduction
“Tarmac” plants the listener at an airport gate: engines rumble, but the real noise comes from feelings the narrator can’t unload. The repetition in the hook mimics a boarding announcement stuck on repeat, underscoring a stalled escape from past hurt. Joji uses the physical limbo of a runway to chart an inner standstill.
Verse
The lone verse snaps between self-deprecation and restless motion.
“Someone said I used to be a lab rat”
The speaker feels experimented on, an object in someone else’s study. It paints a history of being observed rather than understood, feeding a theme of dehumanization.
“But I was swimming nine laps / Take our time back day by day”
Swimming laps suggests relentless, pointless cycles—exercise that ends where it starts. Reclaiming “our time” hints at a relationship clock the narrator keeps trying to rewind, a desire to out-swim memory.
“Waiting for the time lapse, tell me how you did that”
A “time lapse” compresses hours into seconds, so the line envies anyone able to fast-forward through pain. It confirms the broader motif of wanting distance without the slog of healing.
Chorus
The chorus repeats like a delayed flight announcement, amplifying frustration.
“I was on the tarmac, pushing feelings way back / I keep waiting to not care”
The runway becomes a holding zone where emotions are shoved “way back,” as if stowed in an overhead bin. Yet indifference never boards; the waiting room stretches indefinitely.
“I’m tryna find my way back / Won’t you take me, take me there?”
“Back” is purposely vague: back to a past intimacy, back to oneself, or simply back to a state before apathy felt necessary. Asking someone else to “take me” admits dependence, contrasting the supposed detachment of the previous line.
By looping these lines, Joji externalizes obsessive thought patterns—the mind circling the same runway lights, unable to lift off or taxi home.
Conclusion
“Tarmac” captures the claustrophobia of almost leaving. Joji’s narrator parks between departure and arrival, muscling feelings into storage while secretly begging for their safe return. It’s a song about the fantasy of numbness—and the uneasy truth that even on an endless runway, the heart’s baggage keeps rolling beside us.
