Heart to Fingertips
Guest post by Jason, LP fan from Vancouver, Canada
When I’m Over You is my personal favourite single, out of the three we’ve heard thus far. The bass line, combined with the backing vocals and LP’s haunting-as-always delivery, give the song a bit of that “Led-Zeppelin-esque sexy-ness” that LP often talks about…
Needless to say that, as with the former two singles, this one is also a blatant example of technical expertise… the piano breaks, LP’s pause in the middle of delivering the chorus, the “Muddy Waters type” of backing vocals, the pause that the drum takes in the middle of building up the bridge of the song…
These are all examples that pop songs don’t need to be boring or repetitive, and that even if you have simple yet true lyrics, and a simple chord progression, you can write a masterpiece… pop and rock have for a long time been stagnant, boring, repetitive, and LP’s genius proves itself once again through her eclecticism and reinvention of rock and pop…
It’s a work of genius to mix different genres (rock, pop, country, folk, elements of classical music) and still make meaningful music… few bands and artists are capable of doing so (Canada’s Arcade Fire come to mind… I think they and LP are ahead of the game when it comes to writing innovative pop and rock songs…)
At first glance, When I’m Over You is a strange song, mainly because the narrator’s lyrics are set in a sad place, yet the song in itself is, as I said above, sexy… hopeful… and that ends up shaping one’s understanding of the lyrics… therefore, the “sexy” atmosphere of the beats and piano and bass line makes me think of the song as life-affirming… LP has said in a few occasions that many of her songs have a certain tone that “things will be OK”… and When I’m Over You is a perfect example of this way of seeing “breaking up, being down, not being over someone” and still remaining hopeful… let me try to explain better…
Despite the present despair inherent to not being completely over someone… the song still presents itself as hopeful… interestingly enough, the lyrics present the narrator stuck in a rut in the present, but dancing away in a hopeful tone… looking towards the future… someday, when I’m over you… LP sings… and the narrator never really says what will happen when she’s over the object of her love… however, the narrator can envision, or foresee what might happen: the shapes (the ways in which we idealize the people whom we love, perhaps?) shift, and the weight (of the separation, and probably of all the heartbreak that comes with it) lifts…
This was a real timely song for me, personally… for a long time, my love of LP’s art was tied to my love for the person who introduced me to LP’s music a few years ago… and it took me nearly 2 years to disassociate LP’s artistry from the aforementioned person who introduced me to LP… it was only recently that the weight lifted away, and now that I am over the person, I have definitely been feeling much lighter and focused on my life and career and personal goals… and my love of LP’s music is now my own thing, that I can enjoy and feel and move around to (I refuse to call what I do when I listen to LP dancing… hahaha… I’m a terrible dancer…) in my own way, without recalling my failed romantic endeavour.
I’ve taken a more guarded stance since then, and have refused to seek new love for a while. But I feel that soon I’ll be ready to start something new again. Like LP, I am a serial monogamist, addicted to love.
But for now, I just want to enjoy LP’s Jeff Buckley-esque “oh oh oh’s” and operatic vocals, dance away by myself enjoying her beats and moves, and feeling the power of her voice nourish my soul with joy… and I think that’s the true power of good art, of good music: through art, you realize how beautiful (yet often complex!) the human experience is… and that you are never truly alone…
Thanks for reading! It was written straight from my heart to my fingertips…
Jason.
Anna from Poland. I have been a blogger for a long time, but more in a royal field. Since 'meeting' LP through her music and as a person, a lot has changed. If I'm not working on my blog, I work as a teacher. I love to travel, read & dance. I sing & play uke when no one listens. Music was always a big part of my life.
