A few months ago, I wrote an artist spotlight about Alvvays, a Canadian indie pop group that was recently nominated for its first Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance. With a discography spanning three albums, the band has slowly grown into one of indie music's most memorable and innovative bands within the last decade.
As someone who has become a major fan of the band, I find Alvvays' use of lyrics and production intriguing, as each song sounds different from the last. This semester, I'm starting a weekly song analysis series called "Music Notes," and I wanted to use my first piece to write about arguably one of the band's best songs, 2022's "Belinda Says."
The title "Belinda Says" refers to the song "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" by Belinda Carlisle, which was released in 1987. This reference is used toward the end of the song, where lead singer Molly Rankin says, "I'll egress to Inverness with nothing in my pocket / Belinda says that heaven is a place on earth / Well so is hell," signaling a change in scenery from the beginning lines of the track.
The song's lyrics are essentially set from the point of view of a woman who finds out she is pregnant. We feel the narrator's sense of confusion about what to do with her unborn child, confiding in the person who got her pregnant, as Rankin sings, "Circumspect when you call collect / To see if I would keep it / Paradise and I find myself paralyzed / Knowing all too well, terrified." However, this is also a turning point in the song, as its fast-paced, guitar-blaring intro fades as Rankin's voice comes to the forefront to confront this confusion and fear.
Most of the song tackles the notion of fear, feeling that they will no longer be their sole provider and potentially be responsible for someone else. Bringing someone into a world full of injustice, chaos, and destruction is also an idea many listeners can relate to.
Interestingly, some of the best lyrics come with just Rankin's vocals: "Moving to the country/ Gonna have this baby / See how it goes / See how it grows,“ and we see her vocal tone change, sounding more optimistic. The narrator moves away from her hometown, removing herself from the negative gossip of it after discovering her pregnancy, as well as from the shame of being a young, single parent. This leads to the reference above to Carlisle, as the narrator now feels like she can start again, hence the reference to heaven.
The lyrics tell a story full of guilt, confusion, shame and redemption, making it quite the song to listen to when you're also feeling the same feelings as its narrator. What "Belinda Says" depicts is the actual reality of many young parents, and an analysis of its lyrics proves Alvvays' understanding of how to tell a relatable story for many of its listeners.
Meanwhile, the themes are not ones commonly sung about in an upbeat ballad like "Belinda Says," and it ties it into the rest of the album that it's on, “Blue Rev." Unlike Alvvays' past two albums, "Blue Rev" seems to focus more on the common, everyday experiences of adulthood. For example, other songs on the record, like "Tile By Tile" and "Easy On Your Own?" tackle heavy subjects like toxic male-female relationships and removing oneself from them.
"Belinda Says" is sort of the catalyst of the record, as many of its songs before and after it are the perfect companions to its chaotic, whirring melody. It’s also heavily influenced by 1980s and 1990s alt-rock, with Rankin even mentioning in the past that their sound is similar to bands like Camera Obscura and The Magnetic Fields.
Its use of imagery, also through terrific narration, adds to the song. Listeners can visually see a young woman in each stage of her pregnancy. In 2 minutes and 45 seconds, Alvvays utilizes the title of its album as a symbol, as the band's narrator uses her "blue rev" as an escape to start her new life with her child. This symbol could also emphasize the song as a form of escapism from reality, using its lyrics to invite listeners into a fictional world.
Overall, analyzing “Belinda Says" proves how rare it is to find a song like it in the indie music scene, but how important it is to highlight it in a world where the future of female autonomy is uncertain. If you appreciate relatable lyrics and a song you can escape in, take a listen to this song.
