You’ve been kept down You’ve been pushed ‘round You’ve been lied to You’ve been fed truths Who’s making your decisions? You or your religion Your government, your countries You patriotic junkies
Where’s the revolution Come on, people You’re letting me down Where’s the revolution Come on, people You’re letting me down
You’ve been pissed on For too long Your rights abused Your views refused They manipulate and threaten With terror as a weapon Scare you till you’re stupefied Wear you down until you’re on their side…
The point is that “thank u, next’s” healthy processing of personal
pain is a rarity on the pop charts. That’s probably fine;
therapist-approved lyrics don’t exactly make for easy listening. But
being both graceful and catchy is no simple feat, and “thank u, next”
will probably vault Grande to an even higher tier of pop stardom
(perhaps the highest).
To be clear, poetry these lyrics are not. More importantly, Grande
slips by the second verse into a trite and sophomoric satisfaction with
self-love that sounds like it was inspired by a bad Oprah monologue.
So afraid to open your eyes, hypnotized.
You know you’re not the only one
Never understood this life.
And you’re right, I don’t deserve
But you know I’m not the only one.
We’re all grieving,
Lost and bleeding.
All our lives,
We’ve been waiting
For someone to call our leader.
All your lies,
I’m not believing.
Heaven shine a light down on me.
CultML 