“Moth To A Flame” by Swedish House Mafia & The Weeknd

The Weeknd is one of the rawest singers in the game when it comes to dropping love songs. In other words, his tunes often center on some of the less-than-pleasant aspects of romance instead of a happily-ever-after type of sentiment. 

“Moth To A Flame”

And in this case (“Moth To A Flame”), we can say that he is addressing someone akin to an ex-girlfriend. Or, that’s at least one way of looking at what’s going down. But most easily put, what we are dealing with here is the singer being in love with a lady who is rather committed to another man.

Again, the hasty, easy conclusion, taking the title of the song into consideration and the way it the song’s only actual verse is worded, would be that the addressee once dated the vocalist but is now with someone else. However, especially when dealing with an artist as lascivious, if you will, as The Weeknd, it may be that he first hooked up with knowing that she already has a man.

Either way, what the thesis sentiment revolves around is Abel encouraging her to officially come to his end. And his reason for doing so is twofold. 

The Reasons

First would be her feelings for him – and presumably vice versa. But interesting to note is that there’s not even a single line where the vocalist expresses his affection for the addressee in a lovey-dovey kind of way. Rather, the emphasis is more on her being dissatisfied with the other dude.

And the source of that discontent is also dual-pronged. On one hand, it can be said that she prefers The Weeknd, allegedly being able to relate to him better than her actual boyfriend. 

The second reason would be that said boyfriend is mistreating or abusing her in some sort of way, perhaps, as implied by the lyrics, not even realizing how she truly feels in the process. 

And it is one of those kinds of situations, as presented by the vocalist, where on the outside everybody thinks the addressee’s man is perfect for her. But with The Weeknd being her side dude and all, he knows the true secrets of her heart.

The Addressee

So the reason we speculated earlier that this may be an ex is because in the first verse, the vocalist speaks of ‘pulling back’ the addressee. He also states that she is actually “loyal to me”, you know, despite (now) having another dude. In our ears, that certainly sounds like something an ex-boyfriend may say. 

But again, it could be that he met her while already committed and is thus basically sleeping with someone else’s lady. All lyrics considered that can also be interpreted as the case, as the wording does read a lot like they’re being relayed by a dude who is trying to seduce someone else’s girlfriend. 

And it may be that he even realizes the danger – if you will – of making such a move, which is why he uses the related analogy of drawing her like “a moth to a flame”. That is an interesting choice of words because yes, moths are in fact attracted to fire. But we all know what happens once they get too close. And we’re not naïve enough to believe that a singer of The Weeknd’s artistic leanings simply overlooked that aspect of the metaphor.

But in any event, he is convinced that this lady loves him more than the other guy. 

In Conclusion

Conclusively, it seems as if he is calling her to now come to him once and for all. If he is her ex, then evidently he is a penitent and concerned one. Or if he is a flat-out woman stealer, then it’s like now he’s making his power move. 

But at the end of the day the addressee leaving her current boyfriend (which according to the vocalist is what she truly desires) will obviously not be a simple thing to do from primarily a social standpoint.

“Moth To A Flame”, Swedish House Mafia and The Weeknd

This track is actually to be found on a forthcoming Swedish House Mafia album project “Paradise Again”. The said project is the first studio album the group has come out with since 2012, as for the most part they were no longer working together between now and then. 

But to note the individual members of the crew, disc jockeys Steve Angello, Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso, all have their respective individual careers, thus placing Swedish House Mafia under the supergroup category.

And of course The Weeknd, who became professionally active around the same time as his collaborator in the late-aughts, has been pretty much grinding throughout. His own last studio album, After Hours (2020), was both a critical and commercial success. And he also performed at the most recent (i.e. 2021) Super Bowl Halftime Show – i.e. the biggest stage any musician can get in the United States – in addition to racking up a dozen Billboard Music Awards this year alone.

News of this song’s forthcoming issuance hit the airwaves during September of 2021. And Republic Records made it public as the third single from Paradise Again on 22 October 2021. 

This is the first collaboration between the two headline acts. And what they share in common is that they are both managed by the same individual, one Wassim Slaiby, aka Sal.

The three individual members of Swedish House Mafia are credited in both a writing and production capacity of “Moth to a Flame”, as is Carl Nordstrom. And The Weeknd also gets writing credit.