This song is interesting in that it starts off with a sweet boyfriend calming his seemingly easily-scared girlfriend down. It goes on to describe the little things the narrator does for his "darling", painting a picture of a patient and attentive boyfriend catering to a fussy and irritable girl. The final part of the song the boyfriend breaks down and lets out all that's been weighing on his mind and the girl responds by comforting him in a similar way he did to her... except she doesn't. She complains even more. The interesting bit about the way the narrator tells this part is what I think many people seem to be overlooking and taking at face value, though I could be wrong.
This way of presenting the girl's reaction is pretty passive aggressive on the narrator's part, and while many of us are left with an impression of an energy sucking abusive girlfriend and an ever-comforting boyfriend who never stands up for himself and his feelings the way the ending is written almost contradicts the boyfriend/narrator's image as a doormat who only thinks of her. He's throwing hella shade, to put it bluntly. He's clearly salty, yet he ends the song as a martyr, comforting his girl at the expense of his own feelings and needs.
This can be interpreted in several different ways. We can either see this as Jeffery Lewis setting up a song reflecting on a past relationship and how he let himself be taken advantage of and shouldn't have, or we can see it as only the narrator's perspective of the relationship. (Of course neither are wrong) Some of the girlfriend's complaints at the very end actually have substance, but when compared to her actions in the rest of the song she seems like a bitch. The writer set her up in a very specific context that he took great pains to construct throughout the song, this is important and should not be overlooked. This is very likely a passive aggressive saccharine sweet diss, and a very well thought out one at that. This song carefully paints the narrator as the blameless victim and the girl he tends to as the obvious villain. This is a well-written song regardless,yet it makes one wonder what actually happened and whether or not there was another side to this story.
This song is interesting in that it starts off with a sweet boyfriend calming his seemingly easily-scared girlfriend down. It goes on to describe the little things the narrator does for his "darling", painting a picture of a patient and attentive boyfriend catering to a fussy and irritable girl. The final part of the song the boyfriend breaks down and lets out all that's been weighing on his mind and the girl responds by comforting him in a similar way he did to her... except she doesn't. She complains even more. The interesting bit about the way the narrator tells this part is what I think many people seem to be overlooking and taking at face value, though I could be wrong. This way of presenting the girl's reaction is pretty passive aggressive on the narrator's part, and while many of us are left with an impression of an energy sucking abusive girlfriend and an ever-comforting boyfriend who never stands up for himself and his feelings the way the ending is written almost contradicts the boyfriend/narrator's image as a doormat who only thinks of her. He's throwing hella shade, to put it bluntly. He's clearly salty, yet he ends the song as a martyr, comforting his girl at the expense of his own feelings and needs. This can be interpreted in several different ways. We can either see this as Jeffery Lewis setting up a song reflecting on a past relationship and how he let himself be taken advantage of and shouldn't have, or we can see it as only the narrator's perspective of the relationship. (Of course neither are wrong) Some of the girlfriend's complaints at the very end actually have substance, but when compared to her actions in the rest of the song she seems like a bitch. The writer set her up in a very specific context that he took great pains to construct throughout the song, this is important and should not be overlooked. This is very likely a passive aggressive saccharine sweet diss, and a very well thought out one at that. This song carefully paints the narrator as the blameless victim and the girl he tends to as the obvious villain. This is a well-written song regardless,yet it makes one wonder what actually happened and whether or not there was another side to this story.