I Don't Believe You

It's best not to make any gender assumptions when listening to Stephin Merritt songs.

I'm gonna do something crazy and suggest s/he DOES love the narrator. Or might love him, but it hardly matters, since nothing s/he says or does will convince him of this, not even when s/he's being honest ("its truth or falsity is moot"). He says "honesty's not your strong suit" but he doesn't say why, we're just supposed to take his word for it, right after he tells us that the truth doesn't matter to him.

This song is an admission of his own insecurity. It's I don't believe you, not you are lying to me. He's not making accusations, he's taking the blame.

The bridge does offer and illusion of hope, in that he dreams s/he loves him, but as the wonderful and charmingly self-loathing Morrissey complains elsewhere in music, it was just another false alarm. But how does he know? He says the love he felt in the dream isn't realistic, but he's already chosen, while conscious, to disbelieve.

"You may sing me "They Were You" / And I start crying halfway through" I can't think of many things more personal than singing to someone powerfully enough to make them cry. Even a trained performer must have some emotion invested to move a person to tears. "But nothing else you say is true" He believes when s/he sings to him, which reflects his own expression of honesty through this song.

Or: maybe s/he doesn't love him, and he has every reason not to believe it. Either way, it's a very clever song.

And yeah, my interpretation is based on semantics. But I'm fairly sure Merritt pays attention to those. The narrator is clearly suspicious of words and their meanings.

It's from the conclusion of the musical The Fantasticks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEso0K7yIR0.

how clever! i especially like the use of "quote, unquote" and "ampersand after ampersand". Obviously about a femme fatale of sorts

hahahaha indeed

this is one of my top played songs, and also one of my favorites from i.

I don't have any clever comment for this song, because i think it speaks for itself. seems to me to be about a guy who never commits claiming to love the narrator, and he doesn't believe him because ...the guy isn't known for his reliability in that area. =P

the "charm on stun" part makes me laugh everytime.

"I had a dream and you were in it the blue of your eyes was infinite you seemed to be in love with me which isn't very realistic,"

!!

No matter how familiar I am with Magnetic Fields, and how sarcastic this song is at the beginning, I still get sucked in by the false promise of the bridge. And then, its immediately undercut with, "which isn't very realistic." So great.

really funny abrupt bridge. ;) not your average love-ish song

one of my favourites.

Does anyone know what "They Were You" refers to?