The first time I heard ‘Medicine’ by Daughter was on Person of Interest. Herold (my best character) was torn between being running or staying to fight for his A.I machine because a more complex one was trying to take over. As the song played, he was evidently at crossroads. Well, I enjoyed hearing that song which got me thinking about its implied meaning. I hope you enjoy reading through the lyrics and my interpretation.
Pick it up, pick it all up.
And start again.
You’ve got a second chance,
you could go home.
Escape it all.
It’s just irrelevant.
It’s just medicine.
It’s just medicine.
You could still be,
what you want to,
What you said you were,
when I met you.
You’ve got a warm heart,
you’ve got a beautiful brain.
But it’s disintegrating,
from all the medicine.
from all the medicine.
from all the medicine.
Medicine.
You could still be,
what you want to be,
What you said you were,
when you met me.
You could still be,
what you want to.
What you said you were,
when I met you.
when you met me.
when I met you.
Ooooooooo…
Ooooooooo…
The song is written from a third person’s point of view. Where, this person describes the other according to how they knew them before the side effects of the ‘medicine’. The guy or girl is described as of a ‘warm heart and a beautiful brain’ yet the medicine is causing it to ‘disintegrate’. By saying that it’s just medicine, the author suggests that the person can quit it and reclaim their previous glory. That is why she says “You can still be what you want to be”. The author also suggests that there is hope by asking the persona to “pick it all”. The persona is supposed to get his act together.
The persona clearly feels lost. They have lost touch with the things that make life worth living. When you take medicine, for instance, cough syrup, you always get drowsy and sometimes hallucinate. That makes you have weird thoughts and alters your reality. The effects, however fade away with time and you go back to the ‘normal you’ per say. Another kind of ‘medicine’ is alcohol which alters your reality and takes you to a place where everything is fine and you don’t have to worry.