POPULAR — Have you ever listened to music and thought about a song for a considerable time? For how long? Two days? Two months? A whole year?
As a Gen Z myself, I can bet you have! A lot of us have those one or two songs (even a whole playlist for some!), which means more than the song itself sticks in our minds. They hold significant meanings due to the reasons such as the rhythm, the singer’s voice, the instruments played, and, most importantly, the lyrics.
We humans tend to be attracted to things that we are familiar with and can relate to. Even if at times we are not aware of it, our subconscious is pretty foxy, as well as sensitive. In particular, if you keep listening to “Another Love” by Tom Odell or “Lose You to Love Me” by Selena Gomez and feel the pain of the singers very vividly, this might be because you too have been mistreated by a loved one of yours in the past, or maybe you empathize with the singer because you understand their human emotion; this is what those two song lyrics are about - feeling pain.
Music is a beautiful way of expressing our feelings, and that’s why I’m more than happy to use this great opportunity to write in The Viking View about music. For every issue, we will have a song of the week chosen by student recommendations and then will analyze the meaning behind it. The Yearbook Team and Ms. Jilesen will figure out a way to take your recommendations for the upcoming weeks. Until then, I hope you can all enjoy the song of this week I have chosen on my own: “Easier Than Lying” by Halsey, highly recommended by your dear author! Stay rhythmic Vikes!
Note: Listening to songs before reading the analysis is highly recommended if you haven’t before.
I'm only whatever you make me
And you make me more and more a villain every day
But you don't know, you reap, you sow
Whatever you give to me, from yourself, you take
Well, if you're a hater, then hate the creator
It's in your image I'm made
This song starts off by foreshadowing an upcoming line in the chorus that we will take a look at shortly, saying, “I’m only whatever you made me.” This line shows listeners how the singer lost control of herself to her loved one. On a toxic level, she is no longer herself but a ‘villainous’ version, because this is how she has been treated. As a result, The villain Halsey is what her loved one ‘sows’ because ‘villainy’ is what they have ‘reaped’. After the proverb, Halsey states the same point with clearer words in the fourth line, that she is mirroring the mistreatment she is receiving and that is how she became a villain: “Whatever you give to me from yourself you take.” In lines 5 and 6 she says, “Well if you are a hater then hate the creator. It’s in your image I’m made.” She is showing that she has accepted herself as her villain version and is telling her loved one who does not take the responsibility of turning her into a villain (narcissism alert y’all), thinking this is who she is already. She is saying that the creator should be guilty because in the loved one’s mind she was created as a villain.
One eye open and one eye closed
'Cause I'll hang myself if you give me rope
I lost all my faith and lost all hope
That everything means anything at all
One eye broken and one eye bruised
'Cause I gave myself away for you
You liar, you don't love me too
It's easy for you after all
To continue, we can see the psychology-based results of her toxic experiences with her loved one, which unfortunately most of us can relate to. Romantic or non-romantic, everyone experiences at least one toxic relationship in their lifetime, and we all have different reactions to our traumas and the damage we receive. In her case, it was paranoia and suicidal thoughts, stating she is not comfortable even in her sleep and she could kill herself if she had the chance, followed by the epiphany that all the things she has been experiencing don’t even have any meaning, unlike how she hoped.
Eventually, she lost her hope and faith as well. She refers to her emotional damage with a metaphor of ‘one broken and one bruised eye’, comparing her mental pain with physical wounds. And there we have the foreshadowed line at the beginning of the song: “Cause I gave myself away for you.” In this line, she clearly says that she does not have any control over herself once again. More clearly, she gave herself away, she gave in, and as a result, she got one broken and one bruised eye. As we continue, we run into another line that some of us can relate to. I’m sure there are some among you who have been told, “I love you,” but little did you know the teller was lying, and this is exactly what this line is about. Halsey refers to one of the moments that she tells her loved one that she loves them, and when they say “I love you too,” she knows it’s a lie now, and she knows how easy for people to lie to ones they don’t love.
My heart is massive, but it's empty
A permanent part of me, that innocent artery
Is gaspin' for some real attention
Some undivided hypertension
Tell it, "Quiet down, you're bein' loud"
But it beats harder every time you come around
But do you love the sound?
Moving on, we see some lines where she is talking about her innocent self, as we can also see the word ‘innocent’ in line 17. Here she is highlighting that she is capable of loving someone deeply by saying her heart is “massive,” but it does not end well and now it’s “empty.” People with unreturned love have massive hearts, as well as empty hearts because their loved ones do not feed their hearts back, as Halsey also mentions hunger in the next lines. “A permanent part of me that innocent artery” shows she admits that no matter how villainous she gets, she will have that innocence in herself which is symbolized as an artery in line 16. She is still seeking attention, but a real kind, unlike the toxic attention she has been receiving.
Now that we are on line 18, I think it’s one of the lines that most of you Vikes can relate to: “undivided hypertension.” Can any of you guess the meaning behind it? Let me give you a hint, what is one thing that your loved ones do that drives you crazy in an annoying way? Not sure if you get it right but let me spill it: ghosting! The phrase “undivided” is referring to people who constantly keep in touch with us, without playing toxic “make them chase you” tricks that are spread by cringe YouTubers who make up flirting tips by referring to their primary school dating life. Guess what their favourite tip in common is? Don’t reply to their text:) Anyways, let’s not kill this beautiful song’s vibe! In lines 19-21, she is talking about the presence of her loved one’s effect on her, as she says even if they would try to stop it, her heart beats harder by his presence, and she seems to think they might be enjoying it since it shows they have her control.
Repetition #1
I sleep with one eye open and one eye closed
'Cause I'll hang myself if you give me rope
I lost all my faith and lost all hope
That everything means anything at all
One eye broken and one eye bruised
'Cause I gave myself away for you
You liar, you don't love me too
It's easy for you after all
Losing you is easier than
Lying to myself that you love me
Losing you is easier than
Lying to myself that you love me
Losing you is easier than
Lying to myself that you love me
Losing you is easier than
Lying to myself
Now, here it comes, Vikes, one of the most insightful and relatable lines of music history: “Losing you is easier than lying to myself.”
We all meet people, love and understand people, fight and get mistreated by people, and are afraid of losing people. These are all hard-as-hell situations, but do y’all know what’s harder? Lying to yourself. All the times you get damaged, all the excuses you make up to defend your loved one to yourself, all the moments you forgive them for their thoughtless actions while they were not even aware, take a moment now, is it really… is it really worth it? Do you think it’s that hard to give up on that person rather than killing yourself slowly? Well, as we analyzed “Easier Than Lying” today, I don’t know about you but your author and Halsey are on the same page about this topic. Do yourself a favour Vikes, cut them out, lose them, take care of yourself and enjoy this masterpiece.
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