Voices Carry

Lights has released acoustic versions of most of her albums but “ded” is something different. Instead of an acoustic version she took her previous album “pep” and flipped it on its head giving it this brilliantly somber and pensive tone. For me it completely changed everything about the album in every way possible. I could never get into “pep” despite repeated attempts it just wasn’t for me. However it didn’t take one full listen for me to become obsessed with this new version of the album. As I listened this time around I was able to give the albums lyrics the attention they deserved. I could easily talk about the ingenious lyrics that exist in each track but I thought people probably don’t want to read ten pages of my rambling. So I decided to limit it to a few of my favorite tracks.

Voices Carry

There is a line in a song I’ll be discussing later which states “I’m the happiest sad girl you’ll ever meet.” I feel that this track really exemplifies that sentiment. There is lots of sad in this track and yet to me the overall message of it is one of hope.

I don't know how to say

All the things that I need to say

I been dying to run but I can't get away

They tell me I oughta know

How to get up and go

Search the sky for the sun but the clouds are grey

Sometimes it feels like you are trapped and you just don’t know how to escape nothing seems to be working out for you.

You don't know the words

But still, you're tryna to sing along

When the night is calling

You know you gotta take it on

This suggests a few different things is it speaking trying to figure yourself out and dealing with your own inner turmoil? Or rather is it talking about meeting a bad situation head on? Perhaps it could be both of those things.

It's hard to win

When nobody wanna listen

But voices carry

Voices carry

It's hard to change

When everyone wanna stay the same

But voices carry

Voices carry

There is quite a bit to unpack here but I am going to try and keep it brief. Its definitely more than a bit cliché but ultimately to me this is about spreading joy and peace, trying to make the world a better place. Hope and happiness can spread like wildfire and something that my time watching Twitch Music has taught me is that one person can make a difference.

Where do I gotta go?

Who's gonna free my soul

When I am half mast on the flagpole? (On the flagpole)

Ooh, whether you like it or not, oh

This little house is all we got

And we can change the locks to keep out the cold, ooh

You don't know the words

But still you gotta sing along

For me this part of the track exemplifies the overall meaning rather well. The first part talking about feeling lost and confused while the second half is borderline effervescent focusing what good things you do have. The end is repeated line but this time rather than saying you’re tryna to sing along it says but still you gotta sing along. Perhaps to say that you cannot give up despite the circumstances.

How many times does it take to hear me?

How loud now until it comes out clearly?

I want you to come with me, can you?

Hold me higher and I'll take your hand too

How many times does it take to hear me?

How loud now until it comes out clearly?

I want you to come light the fire

Hold me and we'll go higher

This feels like calling out for help maybe to someone specific or just in general. It isn’t just about calling out for help but also offering it in return; it’s a relationship. It is more of what I have been talking about this idea that people can become something more when they come together. Ultimately this track is talking about the power of people coming together in the name of hope despite how difficult things may be, despite what problems we may be facing individually we can come together and be something more.

Rent

I know it ain't nice
But I feel it again
I hear that song
On the speakers again
But it's all up there
My imagination is as tall as yours

I keep a checklist of offenses, ooh

I stay awake to put up fences
If you wanna live in my head, you gotta pay the expenses
And honey, you can't afford what the rent is
You can't afford what the rent is
Honey, you can't afford what the rent is
You can't afford what the rent is

I fantasize when I close my eyes

Explosions in the sky
Lovey in my mind
But I think I know it's all a waste of time

I love all the imagery created in these lines. Staying awake to put up walls and safeguards striving to prevent the same things from happening again. My favorite though is this idea of charging rent for your personal headspace and that some people just aren’t worth renting to. There is only so many chances you can give people so many times you can be burned. You have to decide when enough is enough. It seems that someone has hit that point in this track.

Regardless of what type of relationship you may have with someone sometimes there are people in your life who you must part ways with because they have a negative effect on you. It may take you sometime to come to this realization but once you’ve come to it you realize what must be done.

Salt And Vinegar

But there I go again lighting you up
I keep filling my cup
You'd think I'd had enough
There you go again bringing me down
But still I stick around
I kinda like it now

You're angry, I'm bitter
You and me make a dangerous mixture
Summoned the devil now we can't get rid of her
We go together like salt and vinegar
Salt and vinegar

I could do this all night
When you say it like that
With that look in your eye
Like you're tryna go off
It ain't nothing to suck your teeth at
'Cause when the guns come
They ain't coming to talk

I'm a talker, you're not a listener
You hold back and I just keep givin'er
Kinda reminds me of when times were simpler
We go together like salt and vinegar
Salt and vinegar

I can't help myself when I'm around you
I can't get enough, oh
I can't help myself when I'm around you
Don't hold me back, don't hold me back

For lack of a better term the best way to describe the relationship discussed in this track is toxic. When it’s good its superb in a dangerously exhilarating sort of way and when its bad it is devastatingly so. To top it all off there is no in between it’s a constant shift from one extreme to the other. It is a most horrible emotional rollercoaster. It’s so magnificently tragic as you just cannot seem to stop it.