Stanley Chris

Communication is one of the biggest challenges couples face. Most of the fatal issues that end up burying relationships are things that'd have been easily solved by a few minutes of honest conversation. That is the dilemma the persona in this song finds himself grappling with. In Verse 1 he alludes to the fact that the lover reacts quite negatively when they have arguments. He likes to pour his heart out, and says he doesn't want to measure his words. They had agreed to be brutally frank with each other should matters arise, yet when he uses that latitude to express himself, the other gets offended most times. In Verse 2 the same thought is followed up: she prefers to solve problems using parables and indirect references, forcing him to read between her lines to figure out what she's trying to say, and that often adds salt to the injury, when he finds himself unable to get her. The Chorus is a heavy confession: she puts him between a rock and a hard place, trying to choose between her fragile feelings and the naked truth. If it's all about protecting her from the hurt, then he loses his voice in situations where the truth would inevitably destroy her. The Bridge further intensifies the drama, buttressing the apparent irony in her actions. She's afraid to face the truth, and is conservative with it when it comes to her turn to speak.

The song is about songwriting. The art is personified as a woman who the persona is madly in love with. He had earlier on just finished writing a 10th album, which he says "is sounding right." Now it's onto the 11th, and it's "time to focus on the rhymes" since "we got just one short life." Because time is passing by, despite the many songs "they" have written together, they are determined to write even more, stockpiling them for the future. "The past is gone and will never be again," and "all we have is the here and now," a moment which might easily be missed if it's not seized. "There's nothing left to do," and "nothing else to do," let's us know that he has abandoned himself to his art, and finds the meaning of his existence in it. Verse 2 is a romantic description of his love for the art. He has "never seen a girl with such fire in her eyes," and she makes him lose his focus when she smiles. Songwriting has taken him to heights he never dreamt he would find, and opened up to him a whole different dimension full of nothing but pure bliss. It's a craft he finds tremendous fulfillment from; the best way he thinks he can spend his "one short life."

Steve Jobs said, "Your time is limited; don't waste it living someone else's life," and that is the heart and message of this song. We often get caught up in the motions of life and forget that our days on earth are numbered; even if one had a thousand years, they'd still come to an end. Many people tiptoe through life, hoping to make it safely to death, as one philosopher put it. We have people trapped in jobs they don't like, living lives they hate, and they feel like there is no way out of their misery; they have become so enslaved by society that they have forgotten about the dreams they once nurtured in their hearts when they had the liberty of mind to fantasize and explore the world of their imagination. The song is a reminder that each of us has a purpose to fulfill during our short stay on this side of eternity. It speaks of the fleeting nature of time, and challenges us in the Bridge to cut loose from the crowd, dare out into the unknown and chase the visions we hear calling out to us beyond.

The song is about a songwriter who faces the difficult task of reconciling the words and actions of his lover, which seem to be quite contradictory. He is gifted with the ability to write but, apparently, cannot sing too well. The girl can, but has never offered to try to sing any of his songs. She says she loves them when he sends her something he's written, but doesn't post them on her socials for others to see these works she's so proud of. She can also write quite well, but has only joined him to write one time, at his casual request. The Chorus lands the plane, describing the conflict that goes on within him, which is further expatiated in the Bridge when he says his mind is "under fire", a rather graphic picture of the fight inside. He knows she loves him, truly, but can't seem to understand why her actions tell a different story. It's a highlight of the plight some couples find themselves in, where there is a lot of love and other emotional accompaniments, but not as much support when it comes to the personal goals and struggles the individuals in the relationship are left to battle on their own.

The beauty industry is huge in today's society. Girls and women particularly are sucked deeply into it, investing in a lot of things to enhance their beauty from simple efforts like make-up to rather extreme ones like plastic surgery. But, how necessary are these things? Have we lost perspective? What really defines true beauty? The song addresses this and attempts to let those who feel uneasy about how they look know that they can be beautiful the way they are; one doesn't have to fit into the mold that society has created for them in order to find acceptance and happiness. This vice-like conformity has injured the esteems of many a victim, and keeps luring more and more of its unsuspecting customers into its trap every day, especially with the increasingly pervasive influence of media, both digital and social. There's more to beauty than the outward appearance, and we ought to focus more on that inner beauty that comes from the heart as the Bible admonishes in 1 Peter 3:3-4.