Just to be clear pt. 2...

[skyecaptain]

...Can't keep up with the various threads, but has anyone talked about the plot of "Te Amo" yet? This is what I wrote on Lex's thread:

Has anyone talked about how "Te Amo" seems to be about Rihanna being hit on by a woman in a club and cautiously kind of going with it? "Just watch your hands!" Or is she singing from the perspective of the

Comments

[alexmacpherson]

Haven't paid as much attention to the lyrics as I have to "Fire Bomb", unfortunate candelabra line apart, but yes, what a strange little song this is. You don't hear the sort of intense platonic emotion that the narrator feels in pop that often. I don't hear it as taking place in a club - I get the impression, maybe due to the Latinate music, that they're on a deserted island beach, maybe they've escaped the club to be alone together, because they have a bond regardless.

It's a weird inversion of "I Kissed A Girl", actually: Katy Perry is a straight/bicurious girl who kisses another girl, but from the evidence of the rest of the lyrics doesn't really feel anything for her. Whereas here, you hear how Rihanna cares deeply for the girl and her loneliness, but doesn't kiss her...

[edgeofwhatever]

BTW: http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/41219025.html

[edgeofwhatever]

Lex described it as a song about "fending off the lustful advances of a lesbian stranger" in his original Rihanna post, and I did say something about how depressing it is, but I don't think anybody discussed the lesbianism aspect in-depth.

But we should have, because it is heartbreaking and complicated! And a way more nuanced, respectful, realistic examination of female sexuality than I would have expected from pop music. (Maybe Rihanna could give her friend Katy a lesson.)

I think the "te amo" conceit totally works. The language barrier is a stand-in for the bigger barriers between them -- they don't really understand each other, they can't really provide what the other wants, even if Rihanna knows perfectly well what's going on. And Rihanna does know perfectly well what's going on: "Don't it mean 'I love you'? I think it means 'I love you.'" She's not pretending she doesn't know what "te amo" means, she's looking for help from someone who knows better than she does. She's asking because there's a difference between knowing

[skyecaptain]

I'll accept that, and certainly the music itself on the chorus helps drive your own interpretation home -- "te amo, te amo, what does that mean?" the words echoing inside of her. She thinks it means love, but she just can't feel it. And yet, you almost get the impression that she wants to, which would make Rihanna the first pop star in history who did the whole "I am so over boys wish I was gay instead" thing and made it work. I'm actually sympathetic to this: things would be so much easier if I was just completely different. But I'm not, so I have to deal with myself anyway.

[skyecaptain]

not "almost get the impression," you MAJORLY get the impression. You get an impression like a hammer makes an impression on your finger when you miss the nail. (I mean that in a good way for this song, the obsessiveness of "te amo," like "stupid" in "Stupid in Love," carrying more weight than explicating more could, which ties into your idea that every word is in its right place on this album.)

[edgeofwhatever]

Ah, I don't get that impression at all. I get the impression that what she wants to do is not hurt this girl -- which is impossible, really, and why I find this song depressing as well as heartbreaking (as well as sweet!).

[skyecaptain]

"Maybe if I keep saying 'te amo' I will start to feel it" -- oh, that pesky desperate pathological reasoning. Has anyone written a song about this idea before, that one can keep saying "I love you," hoping its connotations will somehow rub off on them and create feeling, and still failing miserably? Damn, this is really good song!!!

[alexmacpherson]

Definitely - the use of repetition throughout the whole album is really interesting. Crops up more on the swagger tracks, almost like Rihanna's grinding her image into your face, unrelenting and uncompromising, but even there it also works with the "trying to convince self of this" interpretation.

[edgeofwhatever]

It works with a "slow realization" interpretation, too. The same way the repetition of "stupid" in "Stupid in Love" carries Rihanna from defeat to standing up for herself, the repetition of "te amo" and "I love you" carries her from being kind of whatever about the situation to maybe actually loving this girl. The first few times "te amo" appears, it's clearly attributed to the girl; the next time, in the chorus, it's Rihanna saying it in a way that makes us think for a moment she's returning the sentiment; then it comes up again in the second verse with no attribution. Likewise, in the beginning "Don't it mean I love you" / "Think it means I love you" are pretty clearly an extension of her asking, "Won't somebody tell me what she said?" but by the end (after Rihanna's said she feels the love) they and "te amo" and the phrase "I love you" by itself are just floating around, not attached to anything -- like, hey, you said "te amo" and I hung around and danced for you, doesn't that mean I love you, in some way?

[skyecaptain]

Except for Rihanna love connotes fire, gunplay, and violent death, so surely this quiet and intimate moment must be something else...

[skyecaptain]

Oof, on the twentieth listen, I'm seeing more -- they're on a beach, not in a club, and when there's no denying what's going on anymore, Rihanna sort of sighs and says...OK, I understand what you need, even if I don't feel it. And she starts dancing for her, as the woman just watches what she can't have from a (safe?) distance...

[skyecaptain]

Also, think of how intimately Rihanna is observing her behavior. "She's scared to breathe, I hold her hand" ... Also, similarly to "I Luv Your Girl" (what I said about the "f-- that n--" line) it seems that she only said "te amo" once, perhaps the last things she says to her, or maybe in passing (did I hear that right?)

"Listen we can dance, but you gotta watch your hands. Watch me all night, I'll move under the light because I understand that we all need love, and I'm not afraid. I feel the love but I don't feel that way."

Enter massive handclaps as we start DANCING WITH THEM. GAH this is like a seriously amazing song.

[skyecaptain]

Well, they end up on the beach, anyway, when (presumably under the eyes of other people) the woman gets nervous and they go away to the beach. And that's when Rihanna puts on a private show for her, under the moonlight in the water. Jeeeeez.

When I said murder on the dancefloor...

[skyecaptain]

OK, number of times that murder/killing in some form is committed on this album: "Russian Roulette," "Fire Bomb," "Cold Case Love" (chalk outline) "Last Song" (this is the last song you'll ever hear). Any others?

Re: When I said murder on the dancefloor...

[edgeofwhatever]

Busy listening to "Te Amo" on repeat, but do they actually kill anyone in "G4L"?

Re: When I said murder on the dancefloor...

[skyecaptain]

No, but I think "lick the gun because revenge is sweet" probably counts. (Ha, just heard it again on the ride home about two minutes ago and first thought was I GOTTA LET EVERYONE KNOW VIA LIVEJOURNAL!)