I’d somehow managed to overlook this song, ‘Håbløs’ (‘Hopeless’), which has been out for almost four weeks now, but fortunately managed to salvage it.
Mia Loua’s (Mia Louise Andresen) beef is with psychological abuse, otherwise known as controlling abuse, usually found within relationships and where one partner dominates the other, typically the male lording it over the female, but not always.
We’ve had several songs on this topic within the last few months. I often suspect that the singer might have written the song from the heart, having been a recipient of the abuse herself. I don’t know if that is the case here but Mia certainly sings it with conviction.
(I was going to add that a conviction is what the abuser should expect, but that would be tacky, so I won’t)!
Musically I like the use of a bass guitar as the lead instrument in the verses as if to emphasise the plodding nature of a broken relationship and countered by the more upbeat guitar in the chorus where she is putting over her POV. And the very harsh rap of the snare drum as if her opponent’s arguments are being driven into her like nails.
But it is the lyricism which really scores.
There are several lines in it that hit hard in the English translation.
In the bridge:
“I’ve given up on what/I was supposed to fix”
(I can’t think of a better representation of gaslighting than that, can you?
And in the concluding chorus:
“All the words you said have lost
all their magic
Now I truly understand everything you
will never be.”
That’s almost a coup de grace. The plunging of the sword into the bully that has been outed.
Atta girl!
I was reminded of the frenetic end of Elle Mary’s song ‘Behave’, her ultimate riposte to a ‘gentleman’ of the same lack of quality as the one experienced by Mia – another hopeless case – and from whom she has failed to gain a response to her simple question, “What have you learned?”
She offers this advice instead:
“I’ll try to find a delicate way to ask you, find a delicate way to ask you,
…to ask you…
…to ask you…
…TO ASK YOU!..
TO GO FUCK YOURSELF.”
I’ve all else fails Mia, that’s a surefire winner every time.
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