Released: 2018
“Love Me Like You Do” by Ellie Goulding is an intoxicating hymn to impassioned love, expressing the overwhelming and consuming feeling of being deeply in love. It’s about getting lost in affection, surrendering control, and asking for your lover’s uninhibited passion. Sweetheart, you’re in for a wild ride with this lyrical breakdown.
Let’s kick-off with Goulding asserting “You’re the light, you’re the night / You’re the colour of my blood / You’re the cure, you’re the pain,” an intense declarative sentence that instantly throws us into an all-consuming love that’s both miraculous and tormenting. The juxtaposition makes you feel the raw duality of passion – intoxicating in its pleasure, yet tormenting in its intensity. It’s like saying, you’re what feeds my soul and also what makes it ache. It’s common to use juxtaposition in songwriting as a way to highlight both the sweet and sour parts of love and life.
Then there’s the hook and chorus, “Love me like you do, la-la-love me like you do / Touch me like you do, ta-ta-touch me like you do / What are you waiting for?” Seductive and catchy indeed. The repetition, a common technique in pop music to make the chorus stick, lays bare the longing in Goulding’s heart, and the urgency of her desire. “What are you waiting for?” is a plea, an invitation, and an assertion all at once, revealing a vulnerability and hunger for love that’s tactile and tangible.
The couplet “Every inch of your skin is a Holy Grail I’ve got to find / Only you can set my heart on fire” is pure poetry, representing the sacred quest for love and alliance of the body and the soul. The mention of Holy Grail, a renowned symbol of an elusive, ultimate goal in medieval literary works, is cleverly used here to imply an unquenchable thirst for her lover’s touch – a quest she cannot abandon.
Finally, when she sings, “Yeah, I’ll let you set the pace / ‘Cause I’m not thinking straight / My head’s spinning around, I can’t see clear no more,” it underlines a sense of surrender and the dizzying, discombobulating effects of intense love. The reference to “not thinking straight” and “head’s spinning around” is a nod to the classic “lovesick” trope, where people in love often report experiencing a whirl of emotions, clouded judgment, and an inability to focus.
In all, “Love Me Like You Do” paints a vivid portrait of a person swept by the tidal wave of love, seeking and savoring the divine intensity of their partner’s affection. A heady mix of devotion, desire and duality, this one’s a pop music gem!
