The Neighbourhood - The Beach Lyrics Meaning

This song resonates with me very much. I’m in a similar situation at the moment, and this is also my first written interpretation so it may include some major plot holes and grammar errors. Despite that I hope you enjoy, buckle up and enjoy the read (:

- When I listen to this song it sounds like the person singing is struggling with their mental health. Telling us that he knows he’s sick and he’s tired of feeling this way.
“I’m sick and I’m tired too”

- His mental state is causing him to rely on his best friend who is also struggling for support.
“Now I need your help with everything I do. I don’t wanna lie, I’ve been relying on you”

- After some time the singer starts developing feelings for them.
“If I told you that I loved you, tell me, what would you say?”

- But he is afraid of ruining everything because of the mental state he “falls” into time and time again. Admitting that he may need his best friend to pick up the pieces after his mental health got worse again.
“Falling again I need a pick-me-up”

- I believe here that he is talking about the really bad moments, where the singer loses himself. and is asking them whether they are going to go away or stay with him during those moments.
“If I told you that I hated you, would you go away?”

- He also mentions that he feels his mental health is “burning” him and his best friend, meaning that it’s affecting both of them.
“ I feel it burning me, I feel it burning you”

- In this next part the singer hopes his mental health doesn’t drive him over the edge and he is afraid of burdening his best friend because he’s relying on them too much. I believe the singer is also worried about potentially making his friends mental health worse aswell and “burdening them”
“I hope I don’t murder me, I hope I don’t burden you”

- In the last part of the song the singer asks If his best friend will “swim with him” and that he thinks he can see the “beach”
- I believe swimming together is referring to him and his best friend working though their issues and working things out together, and the beach referring to the their life together after he has made it out of this bad mental health state and they both have grown together.
“Swim with me, I think I could see the beach”

-He sings that he needs his best friend even though they’re out in the “open” which is the vulnerable state that you have to be in just before getting better mentally.
“I need you with me, but we’re out in the open”

- He then tells them not to look underneath the water which represents the fear of the “unknown” that lies in taking the leap towards improvement.
“Just don’t look underneath us”