Shawn Mendes - Treat You Better

I'm not especially fond of the lack of evolving, and it doesn't really help that the production is a little bit overdone. It sounds really uncomfortable in the chorus because Shawn's voice doesn't really mesh together with it, like the volumes don't match up or something. While I'm at it, it does also feel like it's trying a bit too hard to find a hook and it just doesn't click with me in the same way "Stitches" did.

But that's not the problem. The problem is of course the lyrics. From my perspective, he doesn't paint a very flattering image for himself here, and so any potential saving grace has either been left on the cutting room floor, or I'm just supposed to assume isn't there. See there's this girl, let's call her Toriel, and there's this boy, let's call him Asgore. Toriel and Asgore are going out with each other. Toriel tells Shawn that she is happy, but he believes this is not the case, he implores that she give up Asgore and instead go out with him, as he is in fact better for her.

There are a few ways you can save this. For instance, provide an example of some sort of reasonable insider info that Shawn can dig up. Perhaps Asgore is cheating on Toriel for another girl, Undyne? Perhaps he heard Asgore talking to his friend Papyrus that he is in fact just stringing Toriel along. I just need something to go off of, because otherwise it's just Shawn's word against Toriel's, and that's something we generally file under mansplaining.

Then there's the opposite approach, Shawn could at least explain why he is in fact the more suitable suitor. All we get from it is that he 'won't let [her] down' and that he is a self-described 'gentleman', the former feeling like a platitude at best, and the latter descending this into fedora-core.

My third suggestion isn't much of an exclusion, rather a re-writing. I can't quite get behind the whole sentiment that Shawn is looking out for Toriel when he immediately suggests that he himself is the replacement. It's just all a little too convenient isn't it? The whole of the song leaves me feeling that he doesn't want her to be better, he just wants her.

Look at it this way: You know the film "There's Something About Mary"? In this song, Shawn Mendes is figuratively Tucker/Norm. So what I'm saying is that Toriel should just go out with Brett Favre, even if the Packers suck. I hope his next single is back on track because I feel a little betrayed here.
Zuletzt editiert: 10.07.2016 20:26