Cruel Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Manney 

Cover art for Cruel lyrics by St. Vincent

From analyzing the lyrics and consulting with the 2023 Farmers Almanac, I have come to the inevitable conclusion there is abundant proof that this song is about venereal diseases and the lack of affordable footwear in the Viet-Nam War. “Cruel”, second stanza, right before the chorus demands from the listener a careful introspection of the rhyme of the stilted 2nd and 3rd accents, resembling Irish limericks. The lilting rhymes fool the casual listener into believing this is about women’s bodies in the age of objectivism, but connoisseurs will immediately see the trap for what it is: a brief and clever ode to men’s and women’s shapely and desirable bodies when wearing black tight fitting activewear. I suspect black spandex. These were conspicuously absent in the jungles of the Vietnam war.

Song Meaning