Better Man (TV)
Mash-ups & Live Pairings
- it's time to go / Better Man (TV) (Eras Tour, Gelsenkirchen)
“I wish it wasn't 4 AM, standing in the mirror saying to myself, "You know you had to do it”
The mirror as the site of self-counsel in the small hours, the speaker addressing herself in the second person with the knowledge that the right decision is also the painful one. The figure distinguishes itself from the avoidance register elsewhere in the catalogue: this speaker can look at her own face and tell herself the truth she needs to hear, and the mirror is what holds her gaze while she does it.
loaded, then fired
“Push my love away like it was some kind of loaded gun”
“My smoking gun” — hoax
The same weapon at two points in its use: in the earlier song love is pushed away like a loaded gun, a threat not yet acted on; in hoax the gun has been fired and is still smoking. The earlier song holds the threat, hoax holds the aftermath.