This song is filled with so many hooks, listening to it is tantamount to going into a butcher's shop at night and coming out with all your clothes ripped up. Right from the get-go, we hear Carly whispering, Son of a gun, in a way that I understand as, I’m getting ready to exact vengeance – I'm coming for you! Whether it be someone in specific or something it doesn't matter.
Along with her voice, we’re ushered in by a spacy-like bassline that whirs like a machine about to set off. As we step inside, looking for our seats, we’re welcomed by a slow and quiet strumming on an acoustic guitar and a subtle sparse piano, all combined to get us there where she wants us, in the last stop of her – revenge?
We take off. Carly comes on – subdued at first but then quickly rising! She pitches her voice down in the first part of every line, only to pitch it up at the end. I raise and I fall with her, I feel bold but I also yearn and hesitate.
You had one eye in the mirror, as you watched yourself gavotte
And all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partner
It’s as if by the end of every line the conviction with which she started gave way to a looming melancholic feeling brought about by both the utterance itself and consequently the remembrance of things past. Hence throughout our journey, I hear her attempt and fail at what I first imagined could be a well-executed vendetta that ultimately culminates in a love song.
You had me several years ago when I was still quite naive
Well you said that we made such a pretty pair and that you would never leave
Ah, but what a way to do it! No sooner she’s uttering the first words than I’m on my feet dancing and prancing. And just like her I’m full of conviction, and every time the drums come in I feel like I soar to clear skies and want to tell the world a thing or two. But then I also feel happily woeful, or woefully happy, and suddenly I’m confused as to what and how to feel, I become an oxymoron with a pulse.
You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain (you're so vain)
I bet you think this song is about you
Don't you don't you
As I get comfortable, however, my fervor dwindles and instead I begin feeling a calm warmth... Now in my heart and my body, there’s a positive (albeit still somewhat sorrowful) flow of energy circulating, percolating, that keeps me flying regardless. And not only do I continue dancing and singing along but I let myself be possessed by the sensations that this vessel called music and her voice elicit in me. I feel elated, light, unburdened, air-bound, bird-like, somehow weightless yet very human at the same time. But not human as a man, nor male, nor citizen of any one nation – just human. And certainly not vain at all.