Lyrical analysis - IIBY

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1. ‘If I Believe You’ Lyrical Analysis

2. The singer is saying that he feels like he has an emptiness in his life, and by saying it’s “God-shaped” he is suggesting that religion could fill that emptiness. Part of this emptiness is caused by the loneliness that the singer is feeling. The singer describes tossing and turning in bed, suggesting that the struggles he is facing are preventing him from sleeping. He also says he has lost his head, perhaps suggesting he is also out of touch with reality or is going crazy due to his problems.

3. The singer now talks directly to God, questioning whether or not his pain will go away if he turns to religion. He further questions what God wants of him in the hopes that it will stop his suffering. He now describes the pain he’s in and how desperate he is to alleviate it, and the use of “broken” again suggests that he is not mentally stable. He now speaks directly to Jesus, hoping that He will reveal Himself so that the singer knows whether or not his prayers are being heard by anyone.

4. He describes having thought he’s met God, then states that this is only because he was high (dabbing is to press a piece of cannabis extract against a heated surface of an oil rig pipe and inhale the smoke). The singer now becomes more sarcastic in his addressing of God. He questions why he was made an atheist if it truly was God who created him. He proudly proclaims that he is exactly what the Church doesn’t want him to be: “a lesbian kiss” (as the Bible is typically believed to be against gay relationships), and “an evangelist” (which is used to describe someone who actively works to convert others to any ideology or school of thought. In this case, the singer is referring to when he had previously stated religion is a disease). The singer then references the fire and brimstone form of teaching, where preachers use fear to convert people to Christianity, saying that if they don’t then they will go to hell.

5. The singer then ends the song by repeatedly questioning how to find himself, again reinforcing the possibility that he is not mentally stable and needs something to bring him back to normality.

6. Conclusion Overall, the song has a very clear narrative of a mentally unstable character trying to lessen their suffering through religion, though they are unsure whether God will grant them that relief due to having previously denounced Christianity, believing they are everything that the Church doesn’t want them to be. We think this would be a good song to use for the video, as it has a strongly established narrative that we would be able to easily portray, and it would allow for the inclusion of things like symbolism because we are dealing with a more serious subject atter