Take me to your best friend’s house/
I love you then and I love you now…

Grouplove’s “Tongue Tied” does a great job of setting a scene–immediately we know we are at party. A young man takes his girlfriend Marmalade, to a party, something bad happens and they are no longer together. Or at least they are moving in that direction. The song is a sort of plea to get her back, as he says: “don’t wave no goodbye/ don’t kiss me goodnight…”.

What exactly happened? We don’t know, but he may have cheated with her friend. Can’t she just look past this minor indiscretion? (whatever it might be). In his mind he loves her now just as much as he loved her then. He has some good excuses…he was high, he has Peter Pan syndrome… but hey, we’re good together! Maybe they’ll stay together maybe not.

The stakes seem low because of the sound of the song. The sound is a party song, so we feel the upbeat, pulsing high of the party—when everyone was dancing, and they were still together. However, most of the lyrics are a plea to get his girlfriend back. Perhaps this up-and- down is reminiscent of a lot of young relationships. “Tongue Tied” creates a weird combination of feelings in the listener of excitement, nostalgia, discovery, sadness and hope.

Tongue Tied Lyrics

Take me to your best friend’s house,
Goin’ ’round this roundabout, oh yeah.
Oh, take me to your best friend’s house,
I loved you then and I love you now, oh yeah.

Don’t take me tongue-tied,
Don’t wave no goodbye,
Don’t break…

Oh, take me to your best friend’s house,
Marmalade, we’re making out, oh yeah.
Oh, take me to your best friend’s house,
I loved you then and I love you now.

Don’t take me tongue-tied,
Don’t wave no goodbye,
Don’t break.

One, two, three, four,
Don’t leave me tongue-tied,
Let’s stay up all night.
I’ll get real high,
Slumber party, pillow fight.
My eyes on your eyes,
Like Peter Pan up in the sky.
My best friend’s house tonight,
Let’s bump the beats ’til beddy-bye.

Don’t take me tongue-tied,
Don’t wave no goodbye.
Don’t take me tongue-tied,
Don’t kiss me goodnight.
Don’t, oh…

Take me to your best friend’s house,
Goin’ ’round this roundabout, oh yeah.
Oh, take me to your best friend’s house,
I loved you then and I love you now.
(All right, all right, all right)

A-don’t leave me tongue-tied (Don’t leave me),
Don’t wave no goodbye (Don’t wave bye).
Don’t leave me tongue-tied (Don’t leave me),
Don’t…
Don’t leave me tongue-tied (Don’t leave me),
Don’t wave no goodbye (Don’t wave bye).
Don’t leave me tongue-tied (Don’t leave me),
Don’t…

written by Ryan Rabin / Sean Gadd / Andrew Wessen / Hannah Hooper / Christian Zucconi