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Well painted passion
You rightly suspect
Impersonation
The dumbing down of love
Jaded in anger
Love underwhelms you
No box of chocolates
Whichever way you fall
And if I tell you
Lover alone without love
What will happen
Lover alone without love
And will you listen?
Lover alone without, without love
No, no I'll get this
I want to treat you
You're still not famous
And you haven't struck it rich
Underachieving
'Cause no one's receiving
This tunnel vision
It's turning out all wrong
And if I tell you
Lover alone without love
What will happen
Lover alone without love
And will you listen?
Lover alone without, without love
Music is worthless unless it can
Make a complete stranger
Break down and cry
And if I tell you
Lover alone without love
What will happen
Lover alone without love
And will you listen?
Lover alone without, without love
You rightly suspect
Impersonation
The dumbing down of love
Jaded in anger
Love underwhelms you
No box of chocolates
Whichever way you fall
And if I tell you
Lover alone without love
What will happen
Lover alone without love
And will you listen?
Lover alone without, without love
No, no I'll get this
I want to treat you
You're still not famous
And you haven't struck it rich
Underachieving
'Cause no one's receiving
This tunnel vision
It's turning out all wrong
And if I tell you
Lover alone without love
What will happen
Lover alone without love
And will you listen?
Lover alone without, without love
Music is worthless unless it can
Make a complete stranger
Break down and cry
And if I tell you
Lover alone without love
What will happen
Lover alone without love
And will you listen?
Lover alone without, without love
Lyrics submitted by merchantpierce
Track duration: 04:44
"The Dumbing Down of Love" as written by Guy Sigsworth, Imogen Jennifer Heap, Jon Hassell
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think the whole song is mocking love songs in general. The title "The Dumbing Down Of Love" talks about how love songs make love sound so simple. How if she writes her music just to make it big and just uses the same usual material for her songs, it's dumbing down her music. It's dumbing down the idea of love. And she mocks songs in pop culture; by saying that they dumb down love.
This song is absolutely beautiful. The music accompanied by Imogen's voice is what makes this song for me. If this song was done in any other way I probably wouldn't love it as much.
And I'd like to add something. I've just recently discovered Frou Frou and Imogen Heap. Let me tell you, I've never listened to any other music that has spoken to me just as much as their music. I'm really hoping Frou Frou comes out with another album! But I'm still eagerly anticipating Imogen's third album! Her music is absolutely amazing.
a tad disappointed that "Music is worthless unless it can make a complete stranger break down and cry" could be said in a cynical sense, as i think it is true to an extent.
:)
Love love love the connection/ode to the line in Bowie's "Young Americans":
"Ain't there one damn song that can make me break down and cry?"
Other songs that I listen with this one: Bette Midler’s “The Rose,” Morcheeba’s “Fear and Love,” Bjork’s “All is Full of Love,” Feist’s “How My Heart Behaves” and Destroyer’s “Certain Things You Ought to Know”
it’s a meditation that uses music (both literally and figuratively) as a mirror… we love, we sometimes have it returned, sometimes we don’t, but the song is more about how we give and give but we don’t get back, so we hold back—the dumbing down of love (“no box of chocolates”)… and then, we wonder why “it’s turning out all wrong”… and then, the mirror—we listen to a song… and we return. We listen to a song, to music, and it gets us through. Music and love are one in this song, and I think immi is not only trying to say that “music is worthless unless it can make a complete stranger break down and cry,” but also that music can help us think about love—that, music is (comfort in the absence of) love, and can be, if we only pay attention (“will you listen?”)…the song could also be, simply, immi expressing her love of music..
…about the Othello reference, I think immi has read and knows her Shakespeare… in the play, “well-painted passion” is Othello calling Desdemona a liar, unfaithful… but this is after he believes the lies fed to him by Iago… basically, Othello “became what he saw” (or should I say “heard”)… he heard Iago’s lies and all he could believe after that was lies and because of it, he was destroyed… in the song, “well-painted passion” mirrors Othello’s jealousy… but here, the “well-painted passion” is the lover, "alone without love,” the Othello-figure and not Desdemona as in the play… if we are jealous ourselves, then we are likely to see jealousy in the other, our partner, lover (“you rightly suspect impersonation…”) …love in its contrary state of jealousy (love as a mirror)…
If we don’t listen (carefully), we will be trapped in our jealousy and maybe, be destroyed, like Othello, by it…
But music can help get us out of the cycle. If we listen to the music, we can find ourselves, we can find love.
immi is singing about just that—she is singing about love, as jealousy (“this tunnel vision”), but also about the possibility of love, of breaking out of our jealousy (“If I tell you what will happen?”), of the need to keep loving others and ourselves, even if others don’t love us back—jealousy becoming the unconditional. And then, music as a catalyst. The final line.
It makes me like hypnotized I just break down every single time it gets to the part where she says "music is worthless unless it can make a complete stranger break down and cry" I do. I break down and cry.
I think she is saying that you can give so much love and never have it returned to you. It's sad makes me feel so much pain and emotions that I keep bottled up. It's nice to listen to every ONCE in a while.
like a lot of imogen heap songs, i think it has several different themes running through it
love
music
friendship, passion, and envy
disappointment
if you can't see it, look closer
because it's all there
Absolutely amazing.
How something so simple can have such an effect.
"Music is worthless unless it can make a complete stranger break down and cry."
Indeed.
Brings a moment of stark realisation to me everytime I hear this song.