The lyrics of “Memories” are devastating and relatable, but what’s most striking is their openness to interpretation. Is it about losing someone to Alzheimer’s or cancer, watching as the person you knew is slowly erased? Is it the heartbreak of loving someone who’s consumed by addiction, who grows unrecognizable, leaving you stranded in their absence? Or maybe it’s the fallout of a relationship, where betrayal or toxicity turns your once-solid foundation into a ghost town, as if “Memories” were a sequel to Make Fire’s previous single, “Ghost.” The monster in the song could be any of these, and that’s the genius of lyrics crafted with haunting ambiguity. Make Fire gives you a vessel for your own story, letting you find your pain inside theirs.

“Memories” doesn’t just touch on the pain of loss but walks you through every brutal step of the grieving process. As the song progresses, the lyrics, vocals and musical delivery echo the five stages of grief so vividly you can almost feel yourself moving between them. There’s denial in the hope that someday your loved one might come home, that maybe all of this isn’t real. Anger pulses through the realization that something monstrous has taken them, leaving you powerless and furious at the unfairness of it all. The bargaining comes in the desperate lines where you’d give up anything – “all I love” – just to keep them around. Depression is woven through the verses, in the emptiness, the loneliness, and the suffocating ache of life without them. And, finally, as the song closes, there’s a quiet acceptance, a solemn vow to keep their memory alive even as you let them go. Make Fire manages to capture the full, messy heartbreak of grief, turning every stage into a raw but ultimately cathartic anthem.