Triptych

Samia has stated this song is from the same relationship she talks about in “Breathing Song”, so it’s quite an abusive one (in this last song she implies her partner raped her). Starting from that point we could say this is a song about an abusive relationships especially sexual abuse. You can feel the tenderness in her voice from the start, but also in her lyrics “Hey, did I make a mistake and do my mistakes worsen?” you can feel some type of fear towards this partner and as if she was trying to play cool. In the next lines “I would give it up to every man I love I take what I can get” she admits she would ‘give it up’ maybe referring to everything she has (i take it as if she was talking specifically about sex and her secrets) then she ‘takes what she can get’, this men probably don’t love her but a milligram of affection is enough.

“I will entertain your feet or your hands for a triptych” She will entertain him, this is not an act of sex in a loving way, she’s there only to satisfy him, she takes what she can get, which clearly doesn’t sound like a lot. The writer will do all this things to be captured in a triptych (a piece of art divided in three parts), to always be with him, even though he won’t be with her. “Sell me at the Strand on the stands for a fat brick” she doesn’t care what he’ll do with that triptych of her, she then again gives herself completely to this man.

In the chorus she says “I'll be good to you” once again trying for this lover who doesn’t seem to reciprocate the same affection he is being given. Once again begging him for affection.

We get to the second verse, “So before I turn it off, little light at my bed stand Ask me what I thought of the life that I led and I'll take off your pants, say goodnight to the ears there” she is begging again for this man to do something with her more than have sex, the writer wants to just talk and go to sleep. But she ends up again in a sexual situation.

In the last verse (the most heartbreaking in my opinion) she sings “I'm the moving mouth, moving mouth with my eyes closed” i interpret it as if she was talking about oral sex, she has her eyes closed because (like most woman) she dislikes it but still does it. “Breathing an excuse, breathing loose through my new nose” she could be breathing an excuse from her lover explaining why he is the way he is with her. Oral sex can also make you breath quite loosely. “Feeding you my cake, you my cake, eating it too” She is really give her whole self to him even her soul, which he is now a part of.