Am I Seeing Mayhem Wrong?

[Meruk Holland 2,172]

After having spent enough time with the album, I've been going through reviews and reaction videos and Monsters' opinions. And I just feel like I'm getting a different interpretation from the album than arguably most others. And I know that art is open to interpretation and no interpretation is wrong, but I do still feel like I may be missing something. 

Take for example, Vanish Into You. I've heard it being called this beautiful, heartfelt love song. And to me, it comes off as a lament. Like the singer is clearly in love, but for whatever reason, the two lovers aren't together. And to the point the singer is fantasizing about the day they'll be together again. "Once in your life, you'll be mine" "When I die, can I Vanish Into You?" "Do you see me now? I've been waiting for you, cryin' out" For me, these lyrics just paint this sad imagery of someone longing for a love they don't currently have.

And then with Blade of Grass, yeah it's about the moment the singer is being proposed to, but the message of the song, to me, comes off as a plea to save her from her bittersweet memories and mournful mood. It's about the hardships she had to endure just to end up where she is. It's beautiful, but it's also tragic. She will be saved, but the exact perspective of the song is during this low, maudlin point.

I've seen a couple interpretations that LoveDrug is about finding comfort in a lover, and it just feels like such a misreading of the song when you account for the verses and pre-chorus. I feel it's supposed to be a story of detoxing, "I just need a dose of the right stuff, I just need a hit of your LoveDrug" isn't a proclamation of love, it's a recognition of an addiction craving - one that she's trying not to give into. 

And again, these are just my interpretations, and maybe they're more obvious amongst Monsters and so these takes just aren't being talked about as much here. Or maybe I'm just projecting my personal feelings and experiences onto it and taking these songs in different directions than intended. I di think Mayhem is the Dark Pop album we've been waiting for, just maybe not in the exact way we expected it. And all the better for it.

[TheEdgeof96 406]

I agree with your interpretations. Vanish Into You to me reads more as an unrequited love or right person/wrong time situation, but that may also just be because of a situation I’m currently in. Same feeling I have with LoveDrug—craving someone you can’t have or shouldn’t have and fighting the urge to give in to those feelings. LD in some ways reminds me of a more grown up Fun Tonight. 

[River 110,101]

Vanish Into You is about Tony, it's more a platonic love, than lovers love, the song is similar to the second verse of BR with "psycho, vertigo etc." but in this one she's mentioning songs that Tony sang like Blue Moon.

Blade of Grass is more about the garden than the proposal, because Sonja had her wedding there before she died and other bittersweet or happy memories, so the blade of grass is a symbol of a bittersweet happy future made of these memories. and also she's hoping that "it will last" but acknowledging that this love might end, either by a breakup or death.

[Red 97,097]

I see Vanish Into You not being about unrequited love but about a failed relationship where one person feels invalidated to the point of wanting to disappear into the other person because they don’t have self-love anymore, just a devotion to the other person 

[ThatsGossip111 228]

I kind of view the whole album as a journey of her learning to not let her past, her insecurities, or her public image define her finding the love that she wants. The only way to find the light is by diving into the shadows, into the scary parts of your psyche, and accepting them. To me that’s the theme that seems to bleed throughout all of the tracks. But it’s also kinda where I am in life as well, so could very well be subjective, but that is also what’s so beautiful about the experience. 

[Taumaturg0 135]

Art is half artist intention and half beholder interpretation, there are no wrong interpretation (unless they're WAY off, and yours are not)

Edited 5 hours ago by Taumaturg0

[Plastic Flower 4,233]

I agree. Plus she said that Blade Of Grass still had that dark aspect to it and that’s why she claims to end the journey with DWAS on a hopeful note.