Sorry

I think Sorry looks into Halsey’s insecurities and the way in which her previous partner made her feel like rubbish, and this damaged the relationship that came after. I think she uses the term “unknow lover” because she wants to add an anonymity to the song. However, the overarching message of the song is how she’s sorry she couldn’t love someone else, because she couldn’t even love herself. She says “Sorry to my unknow lover, sorry that I can’t believe anybody could ever really start to fall in love with me” this simply states that she’s so insecure and broken to even really see the connection someone else had with her. Her insecurities can be confirmed in the second verse where she says “I never really understood the way you laid your eyes on me in ways that no one ever could”. The part in which she sees how harsh she was in the relationship is when she says “And so it seems I broke your heart My ignorance has struck again I failed to see it from the start And tore you open 'til the end”. I think the light but powerful piano ballad looks into the detriments of her previous relationship ahd how she couldn’t seem to love someone else because of how she couldn’t love herself. She’s apologising for almost being blind to the situation and how she was treating a new partner how her ex partner used to.

I think this song is about people like me who have what's called in psychology "insecure attachement". Some of us are anxious in relationships, some of us become avoidants. Some of us switch between both. Here's how it works:

We crave love yet we do all the things that sabotage it due to our childhood issues - as it's clear in the song: we keep our partners at arm's length, we want them one day and push them away the next. We don't really believe people are really falling for us or love us, so we kick them before they have a chance to do so themselves. "I run away when things are good". It's unconscious, so not really a choice. We end up leaving people even when we love them. It's bad that way.

I doubt Halsey knows she might have this issue but she sounds like textbook insecurely attached :)