Birdy: Skinny Love Meaning
Song Released: 2011
Skinny Love Lyrics
Pour a little salt, we were never here
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Staring at a sink of blood & crushed veneer
I tell my love to wreck it all
Cut out all the ropes & let me fall
My, my,...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:--i know these are not the actual ones but this is what i think of while listening to the song-- (when i listen to music, the lyrics play out as a movie in my mind so the lyrics adressed to skinny love are from someone to their hope/self worth)
I feel the line of "sink of blood and crushed veneer" can have so many meanings as i think of someone who feels the need to try to wash away their pain as they try to remain strong. This could also be interpreted as someone who struggles to finally release themselves from their facade of happiness, but at a cost. Another darker interpretation which i feel particularly strongly from the text is someone who struggled with self acceptence and self harm behaviors. The line before "pour a little salt we were never here" Could be suggesting how salt is often used to preserve or purify something that has gone bad. While the lines following "Cut out all the ropes, and let me fall...right in this moment, the order's tall" could suggest the sense of helplessness and as the ropes of life are too hard for the person to navigate. In the chorus saying I told you to be patient,fine, balanced, kind, i feel this almost as an internal battle between one's self as they struggle with feeling worthless or a disappointment. From "and in the morning...owning all the fines" i feel as though the person has finally given into their self hate as they had tried to stay optimistic, but they failed, now feeling foolish for believing they could be better than worthless. "Suckle on the hope from lite brassieres" would be someone longing to be skinnier/having an eating disorder or not accepting themselves as they hold on to the hope that becoming thinner promises them happiness. "Sullen...split" refers to how melenchony the person is and how they just want to give up, but how there is still something holding them back. It reverts back to the chorus with "now all your love is wasted..lines" i believe this refers to all the self love they attempted to give, but never succeeded in. While "breaking at the britches and at the end of all your lines" once again refers to an eating disorder as well as self harm behavior. This ends with the final lines asking "who will love you? Who will fight? Who will fall behind?" This is perhaps one of the deepest lines as it is not openly so serious, but in my perspective it is the questions that the person who has struggled this whole song asks themselves as they truely believe that no one cares about them. This also brings back to earlier in the song when they say "let me fall" as they realize no one will care for them and they will be thr one to fall behind. The opening lyric is "come on skinny love just last the year" I believe "skinny love, refers to the very fragile piece of self love and hope the person was trying to hold onto throughout this song as it was the only thing keeping them alive. As sad as it is, i feel this song is about that skinny piece of love and self worth slipping away. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:This song is very strange to me, in the fact that depending on who reads it or hears it, the meaning could change drastically. While rereading this song I have seen it in numerous ways but, finally, I've landed on one that sits with me the best as it fits the song better than the rest. I think this song is about a relationship between two very broken people. The tags which suggest some relation to mental illness somewhat helped lead me this theory. The line "C'mon skinny love just last the year" to me is very powerful as it reveals a lot, if viewed in a certain light. It makes it seem as though the song is being addressed to a person who is very important to the writer of the song, and that this person may be dealing with an eating disorder, as skinny was the first descriptor they used, or depression, as it is a plea for them to keep going. The sink being filled with "blood and crushed veneer" leads me to think that possibly the writer is as broken as the person being addressed in the song. Like maybe they also have depression and the blood is from cutting, the veneer possibly referring to their broken facade of being okay. [I have no real proof that this part is more related to the writer than the writee, it's just a feeling] In the chorus the list of "I told yous" seems to be different things the writer said to the writee in the past, possibly things that they thought would make them better but have failed to do so. Towards the end of the song the writer suggests that there was some sort of fight between the two as the writee supposedly said that "all their love was wasted" The surrounding lines also suggest that the writer was still angry and hurt, while also stating that they are "breaking" after all thats happened. Then the writer asks three questions which seem sort of like pleas to the person they are writing to.
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3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:Come on Skinny Love just last the year
-A fake love very thin protect me for a little bit longer
Pour a little salt we were never here
-Our fake love has been exposed cover it up and pretend it never happened.
Starring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer
-Starring at the wreckage of breaking through the fake front and getting into the truth
Tell my love to wreck it all
-Tell my heart to break down all my walls
Cut all the ropes and let me fall
-Let all my doubt go away and fall completely in love with this person
Right in this moment this orders tall
-Right now this is very hard to do
I told you to be patient
-Give me time, go slow
I told you to be fine
-Be soft and comforting
I told you to be balanced
-Don't throw me off center and make it harder
I told you to be kind
-Don't try to force me
In the morning I'll be with you
-I will be here in the morning (after sex that we shouldn't have had yet)
But it will be a different kind
-..but tomorrow what we had wont be the same
Cause I'll be holding all the tickets
-I will have all the guilt
And you'll be owning all the fines
-You will be stuck with the consequences
Come on skinny love what happened here
-Darn it why did this fall apart
suckle on the hope of lite brassiere
-Drink from the thin hope of my love
sullen load is full so slow on the split
-I am depressed as much as I can be so don't end our relationship, I need your help
Now all your love is wasted
-If all your love was a waste
then who the hell was I?
-why do you think so little of me
Now I'm breaking at the bridges
-I am stopping and holding back not committing
And at the end of all your lines
-there is no where else to go, it stops here
Who will love you
-...if not me
Who will fight
-Which one of us is gonna try to save this
Who will fall far behind
-Who will be stuck here and who will move on -
I believe the most accurate interpretation of this song is a failed relationship. And that in the first year of any it’s usually delicate and skinny until more time passes and it’s built on a stronger foundation, but it sounds like although their was love and connection that unfortunately it wasn’t enough to prevent it from ultimately failing and I would say she broke up with him given you’ll be holding all the fines. -
I always felt it was about her,she is trying to save herself from starving?
I'm probably wrong but that's how I felt like an inner voice, trying to hang on..
Love Froggie -
There are a lot of other people who interpreted this song to be a failing relationship between two people (Birdy and another person). However, the way I chose to interpret this is a failing love with herself and its thinning out because of a mental illness or few.
-"Come on skinny love just last the year" refers to her begging herself to get her through the rest of the year so she may stay with any loved ones she has just a bit longer.
-"Pour a little salt, we were never here" leads me to think two things- either something about an e@ting dis0rder because of a trick some of us use or it referring to "rubbing salt on the wound" by saying that she was never truly there at all.
-"Tell my love to wreck it all/ cut all the ropes and let me fall" sounds like her saying to herself to just give up and stop trying to be okay again.
-"And I told you to be patient/ And I told you to be fine.. etc." resembles the way someone would talk to themselves if they were mentally struggling and had done ungood things (maybe to themselves, others, or both) then regretted them.
-"And in the morning I'll be with you, but it will be a different kind" strongly reminds me of the way some people say goodbye to their loved ones as well as the way some disassociate and are there, but not in the typical way they are.
-When she asks "come on skinny love, what happened here?" I think it refers to her asking herself what she allowed to do to herself.
-The repetition of "And I told you to be patient..." sounds like a reminder to herself what she wanted from herself.
-"And now all your love is wasted" sounds like her thin, skinny self love has finally worn out and she gave in to her mental illness.
-"Who will love you/ who will fight/ who will fall far behind?" Is her asking herself who will love her and fight for her now that she has stopped doing that for herself. And if/when someone fills that role, who's going to fall behind- her (mental illness, I suppose) or that person? -
To me, this song is about the breaking of a relationship, caused by mental illness. Int he chorus, it says "come on Skinny Love, just last a year." This infers that either a. They're line of love, and connection is starting to slim, and its breaking slowly, or b. The writer suffers from an eating disorder, and she can feel herself getting skinnier, as she fades away, but she's begging for just one more year one more year to stay because, there is people she loves.
She also, refers to a sink full of blood and a crushed veneer. The sink full of blood, could be that not only is she suffering from an eating disorder, but she is suicidal as well, and is cutting herself causing the sink to fill with blood. -
Meaning the relationship was never healthy, thus the love being skinny.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I feel, that Birdy is directing this to a particular person that didn't do the right thing or is ignoring Bidy, such as in "Now all your love is wasted" - Could be a possibility of their relationship with each other was all a regret, indicating that it didn't work out. "then who the hell was I?"- their relationship was terrible and her partner/particular person didn't treat her well, as a fact that the person was purposely doing it to hurt Bidy, such as ignoring Bridy.
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I believe that the song is about saving a malnourished relationship that may prove to be a difficult task to accomplish successfully if the love was never really there to begin with, “Skinny Love”’ referencing to the hardships of reviving a neglected love/relationship.
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I think it's about deep inner conflict skinny love being self love
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It almost sounds as if her lover has killed a man"staring at the sink of blood and crushed vaneer" like he has ruined there love"ill be holding all the tickets and you'll be owning all the finrs" but hey just am idea
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Delicate girl in a hard relationship who is currently dealing with anorexia nervosa.
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the song skinny love, by birdy. Has different meanings to different people. To me is is based on two people that have a relationship, but is forced. They want to be together but always has secound thougouts due to how they act "i told you to be patient and i told you to be kind". She has opened the door for him many times but he just closes it ( building walls in stead of bridges).She doesnt want to let him go, but she has to to gain self worth and peace. "ill be holding all the tickets".
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Skinny love talks about a love which is fragile and delicate, easily broken, hence "skinny". "Just last the year" refers to how the relationship between the two is often tumultuous, and she hopes that their love can last the year.
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