Released: 2018Pop princess Tove Styrke makes a candid confession with her track “I Lied,” a synth-spiked juggernaut that lays bare the complexities of emotional intimacy. The song spirals through the turbulence of self-denial, casual relationships, and eventual surrender to unexpected, overpowering feelings.
The opening verse, “I’m like really casual / I never get attached, you know, nuh-uh / I don’t want you like that at all / I just ain’t like that” goes straight to the heart of staving off commitment. Tove’s clever use of colloquial language like “nuh-uh” paints a picture of a person who’s all about keeping emotions at arm’s length. Tove doesn’t want any strings attached, she wants her “common goal” relationships, suggesting casual, agreed-upon liaisons rather than serious bond.
Yet, as the song unfolds, and the chorus hits with “I lied / (And then again and again) / One touch turned into a million / And it just got out of hand”, it’s clear she’s wrestling with her own self-deception. What began as casual has turned into something fully-fledged. The use of “one touch turned into million” encapsulates the depth of her emotional shift, indicating that what started as a physical attraction has multiplied into a full-blown emotional connection.
A similar pattern ensues in the second verse where the tables turn, “You say you don’t like to commit / I just wanna have fun with it, nuh-uh.” The “A-rum-pum-pum-pum,” meant to mimic the sound of a drum, suggests her heart is now beating faster for this person. Yet again, she denies the emotional connection, promising “you just ain’t like that”, only to admit her lies in the chorus that follows.
The line “Didn’t mean to go for the deep end / But when it comes to you, got no defense / Ooh, ooh, yeah” is the crushing admission of her surrender. She’s fallen for the person, and it’s too late to hold back now.
By the end of the track, “I Lied” emerges as a modern anthem lambasting emotional inauthenticity. It’s a sonically rich, lyrically bold confession about how we sometimes lie to ourselves about our feelings, only to be undone by the undeniable force of emotions. And gosh, isn’t it just fabulously relatable?
