Riptide- Vance Joy

    In 2013, the song Riptide blew up. Mostly, when I've heard this song, its really catchy and moved me when I heard it. This song gives me mixed emotions (as it intends to) with its confusing lyrics and happy melody. Partly, Vance Joy is probably singing about his mixed emotions and this sad love song confuses and gives off mixed feelings to listeners because of its really happy tune. As I took a closer look at the strange lyrics he puts off, its easier to really understand this emotion he conveys through this song:

I was scared of dentists and the dark

I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations
Oh, all my friends are turning green
You're the magician's assistant in their dreams

Oh, and they come unstuck

This beginning shows how Vance overcame his fears since he has met a pretty girl. He talks about his friends and how they are jealous and are getting caught up with needing to make money as they "turn green". They see this pretty girl as a magician's assistant, which is someone that used as a prop to manipulate and create illusions, and a mythical being. 

Lady, running down to the riptide
Taken away to the dark side
I wanna be your left hand man
I love you when you're singing that song and
I got a lump in my throat because
You're gonna sing the words wrong

His lady is "running down to the riptide" which means she is somehow freeing herself into chaos, like even shown in the music video of a girl running towards something (probably the beach). She is taken to the dark because in the midst of all the chaos, she loses herself and is broken in some way. Since Vance is left handed, he says he is her "left hand man" instead of the usual right hand man. However, he can also mean that their relationship is sinister since left hand in latin is sinister, and his love for her is more threatening and scary. Despite this, he deludes himself into loving her, even though he tries to deny that they aren't good for each other even when having a "lump in his throat" or a bad feeling of anxiety when she sings the lyrics wrong and how things aren't how they might used to have been. This idea of how things change is shown in the music video to of the girl lip singing the song well at first, but as the video progresses, her makeup is ruined and she is bleeding while lip singing the lyrics all wrong.

There's this movie that I think you'll like
This guy decides to quit his job and heads to New York City
This cowboy's running from himself
And she's been living on the highest shelf
Oh, and they come unstuck

When he talks about some movie, he is actually referring to himself, and how out of his love he quits his job, but his love for her somehow makes him lose himself in this relationship. On the other hand, she is living a good life above others, versus him losing his job, makes their differences even larger, as their hearts less in sync, and they become "unstuck" or more separated.

I just wanna, I just wanna know
If you're gonna, if you're gonna stay
I just gotta, I just gotta know
I can't have it, I can't have it any other way
I swear she's destined for the screen
Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen, oh

This is when Joy asks if whether or not their relationship will continue, and how he insists that they  be together. Not only this but he thinks she is way above him and is someone to admire more on a screen, since she is more mythical in his mind. By just the lyrics " I can't have it any other way" it gives off a creepy vibe, and shows his real mad obsession for this girl that in the video, it shows a hand holding a gun, and the girl with some injury on her neck. It could be implied, metaphorically, this obsession and toxic relationship they had escalated by their denials of reality and led to her death.

    The song may have an upbeat and happy melody, but his soulful singing and lyrics gives off a strange array of feelings. This is probably intentional, because its what he must have been feeling also. Although this song could be interpreted in many other ways, I believe that this song is him telling about an unhealthy relationship of his obsession for the girl and insistence that things are fine and that they haven't change, even when in reality it has. This song may start off as a happy love story, but this passionate love turns into something dangerous like obsession, and fouls this love into a toxic relationship. By the basis, its safe to say that all this obsession and denial eventually comes down to his insecurities. Just by the first lines, Vance's insecurities are laid out for us to see, and his descriptions of the girl is as if he worships her or if she is in a whole other level, and he yearns for her love to cease some kind of fear or insecurity he has. But as the relationship continues, he just builds on more insecurities in fear of her leaving him, (which he may have quit his job for) or that he is running from himself. Overall, this song sends out important messages in toxic relationships that may start off pure, but if insecurities take over, it could cause a toxic relationship and dangerous obsessions. It may appear to sound like some happy love song, but the lyrics and singing is both painful and confusing when observed, just like the sinister and toxic relationship Vance Joy may have had with the pretty girl.

Riptide-Vance Joy (MV)

Peace.

Livian