North Star

Album: The Far Field (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • This Balearic-sounding track is based on a long distance relationship that Future Islands frontman Samuel Herring had in 2016. "Falling in love with someone who lives thousands of miles away is the only way I've known how to fall in love for the last few years of my life, he told Q Magazine. "I've been here before. Then you ask those questions: 'Why do you put yourself in that position? Why can't you fall in love with someone who lives up the street?'"
  • Stranded in Baltimore because of a snowstorm, Herring cannot fly to his long-distance lover. The North Star doesn't appear in the lyrics, but it represents a symbol of hope and direction as he drives across the country to be with her.

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