Monday, September 26, 2011

Gotye + Kimbra // Somebody I Used to Know

A friend of mine recently showed me this tune, and I just can't seem to get any part of it out of my head.  The lyrics resonate so soundly with prior life experience.  The best part, though, is the duet composition - allowing both sides of this crumbled love affair to be expressed in the first person.  All too often the stories we hear, whether recounted by friends or presented in fiction, concern only one protagonist's perspective of the experience.  Every story of such has two sides, but rarely are we allowed to empathize with both.  As I always say: it is all about perception.  No one can make another person feel anything.  Our feelings are based on our perception of what's been said to us or how we've been treated.  Here we see two people, clearly hurt, and clearly with their own ideas of what has happened.  What is love's demise if not some dose or version of misunderstanding?

 
Do you think the rose-colored tint on the lens is intentional?

Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you said you felt so happy you could die
Told myself that you were right for me
But felt so lonely in your company
But that was love and it's an ache I still remember

You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness
Like resignation to the end
Always the end
So when we found that we could not make sense
Well you said that we would still be friends
But I'll admit that I was glad that it was over

But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened
And that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger
And that feels so rough
You didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records
And then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over
But had me believing it was always something that I'd done
And I don't wanna live that way
Reading into every word you say
You said that you could let it go
And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know...

But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened
And that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger
And that feels so rough
You didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records
And then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

I used to know
That I used to know

Somebody...

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