Recommendations of the Editorial team
Three scenes of love that isn’t. Sung by three very different British women who have one thing in common: no longer wanting to look for happiness in just one other person. You have to find that within yourself! If only it weren’t so hard to love yourself. It starts in front of the mirror, when the objects of comparison, especially in pop music, still look as perfect (or at least perfectly dressed) as Taylor Swift, Beyoncé or Miley Cyrus. Body positivity my ass.
Things remain complicated with Fenne Lily
And you are never as insecure as in the moments when love suddenly feels stale because it is too one-sided. “I never had a chance to play it cool,” sings Fenne Lily. She’s fallen in love, she’s giving it her all – what people do when they’re enchanted by someone and want to get as close to them as possible: “I read all the books you recommended/ I listen to your friend’s band all the time.” Unfortunately that’s not enough, things fall apart and the man now lives with his parents again. This doesn’t give her the satisfaction she expected. It remains complicated. But she at least understood one thing: that it doesn’t make sense to keep chasing him and losing yourself more and more in the process. The title of the song is also the good news: “I used to hate my body, but now I just hate you” (from the album “Breach”, 2020). Shifting hatred toward someone else is not self-love, but the direction is right. At least it’s very rarely because of thick thighs when a love falls apart, that’s for sure.
“I read all the books you recommended/ I listen to your friend’s band all the time…”
It’s similar with Misty Miller’s “Next To You” (from the album “The Whole Family Is Worried”2016). She also struggles with her body – or at least with making herself and everything else as beautiful as possible for it. She washed her hair, shaved her legs, made the bed. “You wouldn’t care if I moved,” she then states. “I’m just a body to you.” Would he care if she were lying dead next to him? “You used to love it when I’d sing/Now it’s like you don’t hear anything.” It’s his loss because Misty is a great singer. It’s a shame that she has recently only released home recordings and individual songs.
Florence Welch thinks women are shapeshifters
On to the next unhappy couple. They argue in the kitchen about whether they should have children, about the end of the world and the extent of their ambition and how much art is really worth. Her, apparently, more than him. In which on “Dance Fever” (2022) in the outstanding piece “King”, Florence Welch has obviously come to terms with the fact that she needs the drama in order to have material for her music – and that she is not suitable as a mother or bride: “You need to go to war to find material to sing/ I am no mother, I am no bride – I am king.” It’s probably not due to a word-finding disorder that she decided against “queen” and in favor of “king”. In patriarchy it is the stronger term, and Florence can be anything she wants.
Women are shapeshifters, she later claims – but they also have to constantly cope with new challenges (like men, of course). Sometimes it has to be enough to pretend that you are self-confident and know what you are doing – until it actually happens at some point. Fake it till you make it. Florence Welch continues to persevere, she doesn’t let anything or anyone get her down – not even her self-doubt: “I was never satisfied, it never let me go/ Just dragged me by my hair and back on with the show.” Keep singing, keep searching.
