"Save Myself"

When a song’s lyrics are able to reach into your mind and perfectly describe the emotions that you are feeling, a wave of tranquility crashes over you, easing your mind in a way that you didn’t know was possible. The song begins to feel like it is made for you, an intimate experience between you and the artist, as if there is no bond stronger than a shared emotion. When a song relates to you this strongly, when it takes the words right out of your mouth- or rather out of your mind- it can have the power to save you. We crave this sense of courage, motivation, and understanding when we are dealing with our own personal discourse, and when we have them, we can allow ourselves to begin to heal.

The song that heals you is not always the song that you want to hear. It knows you better than you know yourself and with that insight it gives you the truth, a truth that can be hard to listen to. “Save Myself” was a song that seemed to reach into my thoughts, as if Ed Sheeran wrote about the inner turmoil that I was dealing with, or at the very least was dealing with the same problems. It was the last song that I wanted to listen to, another Ed Sheeran song probably with the same four chord progression he uses in all his number one hits, but its lyrics drew me in so close I was not able to escape. It is not a song that I find musically interesting or even a song where the vocal performance stands out, but I appreciated that this song was not trying as hard. It was a song that was written at a breaking point, raw and unfiltered, exactly what my mind was craving. At my lowest moment, I needed this song to remind me that someone knows, someone understands, and someone cares. It wasn’t about the artist at this point, it was the comfort that was provided by someone empathetic to my situation and was giving me the motivation to change. There is an added message of self-rescue in this song saying, “So before I save someone else, I’ve got to save myself/So before I love someone else, I’ve got to love myself.” The repetition of these lyrics as the song continues enforces this sense of self-rescue and empowers the listeners to make changes in their life. Acting like a mantra of sorts, these lyrics gave me that drive to work towards carving my own path, because the words came from someone whose experience was so similar to mine.

By merely talking about their own struggles, an artist has the power to provide comfort and solidarity with numerous people. A single song can put your mind at ease when it has those perfect lyrics, calming you to a point that allows for rejuvenation and restoration. I think that is what music is all about, providing a space for emotion to inspire emotion.