A Temporary High

* Album
* Acoustic
* Remix
* Vinyl

## *The Gods We Can Touch* alternative chronology

"**A Temporary High**" (originally titled "**Temporary High**") is a song by AURORA and the sixth single off her album *The Gods We Can Touch*.

An acoustic version of the song was released on March 25, 2022. A remix by Kito was released on August 18, 2022.

The song was released on a 7" vinyl on April 22, 2023 (Record Store Day), with the acoustic version on the B-side.

## About the song

On the release day of *The Gods We Can Touch*, Aurora stated:

> "'A Temporary High' is inspired by a woman that is very fascinating. If she was your present, she would be confusing; if she was your past, you wouldn't be able to escape her. If she is your future, you won't be able to keep up with her."
>
>

In a video for Spotify, Aurora said that the god that inspired the song was Janus, a god with two faces. "One face belonging to the past, and one face looking to the future. 'A Temporary High' is about the present, and how we manage to live in the now, what we learn from the past and hopefully also make the future better." The associated god in the Universal Music quiz was Chaos.

Interviewed by *Just Listen To This*, she said about the writing process:

> "It was just a day of fun. It started with the guitar because I really like Ennio Morricone, I think he was a very beautiful composer and I wanted something that sounded like a techno-cowboy song. Then I thought that kind of ugly and beautiful composition of sounds and styles made for me a very clear image of the world right now.
> The world seems like a strange composition of all kinds of different things that we hate, we love, we don't understand. Everything goes too fast and it is all too much. Everything is just so overwhelming. I wrote the song about a woman – The personification of Earth for our time right now. She is a lot and she is very hard to keep track with."
>
>

## Lyrics

It seems like we

Like to be living dangerously

Our heart sings a temporary lie

It seems like her

Madness could be endlessly

Her love is a temporary high

And you're running to the shore

Howling at the waves

Howling back at you

When you're ahead, she's coming after

And when you run, she's running faster

And when she loves, you better hope her love is not

A temporary high

Your body was warm

When she was cold, you would long for love

Her storm was a temporary light

And I guess you froze

When the storm blew away her clothes

And you never got warm again

Your hands as blue as ice

You reached towards the sky

Reaching back at you

When you're ahead, she's coming after

And when you run, she's running faster

And when she loves, you better hope her love is not

A temporary high

And when you run, she's running faster

And when she loves, you better hope her love is not

A temporary high

Your hands as blue as ice

You reached towards the sky

Reaching back at you

When you're ahead, she's coming after

And when you run, she's running faster

And when she loves, you better hope her love is not

A temporary high

And when you run, she's running faster

And when she loves, you better hope her love is not

A temporary high

(You better hope)

(That her love)

(Is not temporary)

(You better hope)

(That her love)

(Is not temporary)

Lyrics transcribed by listening.

## Music video

A music video for the song was released on January 27, 2022. It is directed by Sigurd Fossen.

### Making the music video

Interviewed about creating the music video, Aurora said:

> "I wanted to symbolize the feeling of chaos. Everything means something, from the number and the colors and the positions of people. Some fans have already discovered a few things that connect with things I've done before. I wanted to represent the chaos and the conundrum between trying to make the chaos make sense, while trying to make sense out of yourself. And then figuring out what direction you should go with the people, against the people or just to stand still and watch everyone else. It's this making sense of the chaos and making sense of yourself at the same time and how confusing and overwhelming that can be for a human being."
>
>

## Trivia

* A slightly different version of this song appeared on alternative tracklist vinyls of *The Gods We Can Touch*, where it is sometimes listed as "Vinyl Version".
	+ Differences in the "Vinyl Version" include a slightly different vocal take and extra line at the very end ("A temporary high"), and the instruments are mixed a little different.
	+ The 7" vinyl single has the 'final mix' and not the "Vinyl Version".
* The song was first discovered in various song repertoires in early 2021.
* The lyrics in the second verse bear resemblance to the last verse in Leonard Cohen's song "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong". When noted in an interview however, Aurora was surprised, so this is likely a coincidence.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CqYcvHMNqGJ/
2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZp9IJ5u5\_Q&t=28s
3. ↑ https://aurora.lnk.to/TGWCT
4. ↑ https://aurora.lnk.to/ATHAcoustic
5. ↑ https://aurora.lnk.to/ATHRemix
6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20230311123248/https://recordstoreday.co.uk/rsd-list/aurora/ (archived from original)
7. ↑ https://recordstoreday.nl/album/a-temporary-high/
8. ↑ https://rentry.co/t4tei
9. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220419090913/https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-gods-we-can-touch/1589814809 (archived from original)
10. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej0eA-Fp-p8&t=230s
11. ↑ https://digital.umusic.com/auroraquiz
12. ↑ https://justlistentothis.co.uk/interviews/aurora-bst-hyde-park/
13. ↑ https://www.bedroomdisco.de/2022/02/aurora-the-gods-we-can-touch/
14. ↑ https://www.universalmusic.it/popular-music/album/the-gods-we-can-touch\_34541412826/
15. ↑ File:Temporary High ascap.png
16. ↑ https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/leonardcohen/oneofuscannotbewrong.html
17. ↑ https://open.spotify.com/episode/5CIvLjGzw8Dnu98vOoOxGQ?si=2TZbHZnwRKmZtSRjN2VkGw (timestamp 20:54)
18. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrfmXtyMuf4&t=1254s