Maraschino Cherries by SUMMER NIXON explores the conflicted emotions that accrue after a breakup — longing, desire, and a need for touch coupled with pain. The lyrics take a trip through that emotional hurricane, in which desiring someone is not so much love as need, memory, and touch. SUMMER NIXON uses brief, slashing words to depict a desire that is as sweet-sounding as it is poisonous, as the track’s name suggests.

The repetition in the chorus, specifically in a call to “lock the door,” is a hint at how much she wants to hold onto something that already is identifiable to her as not being her right. It is not physical closeness, but control, that she is looking for. She wants to be with him, but another part of her also knows that it is not a viable fix — but a temporary solace.

She juxtaposes sensuous description with fragments of exposure in the verses. The cherries on the bedstand appear a symbol — lovely and staged, like the kind and idealized version that occurs in her head. A tug is present between what she wants and what she remembers. summer nixon admits that she is stuck in the old words, old memories, even when trying to leave them behind.

There is a hint of bitterness behind those otherwise sweet-sounding words. Phrases such as being friends and inviting someone to give it a try suggest that she is pretending, being cool, but inside, wishing for something greater. Phrases such as “forgive and forget” suggest that she is trying to reassure not so much another, perhaps even herself.

In general, the lyrics are simple but powerful. I am hearing a conflicted individual who is pining for love and pining for revenge and looking for closure, packaged in a dreamy toxic veneer. It is a form of emotional honesty disguised as sweetness.