Lover Analysis Part IX- "False God"

OMG! This is such a great point! Fantastic connection!

English Teacher KP

Getting to this conversation VERY late because I only just joined your Patreon, but the 'Religion's in your lips' line (and even the use of worship more generally in this song) also reminds me of the conversation between Romeo and Juliet when they first meet. Holy palmers' kiss and all that.

Sonja K.

Yes! I think it could definitely work both literally and figuratively! Thanks for watching!

English Teacher KP

I always thought the ocean was literal as well. If the song is about her current partner Joe who is from the UK there is literally an ocean separating them (the Atlantic Ocean) so jumping into that ocean could mean jumping into committing to a long distance relationship which could be catastrophic.

Honestly, the true travesty is that it didn’t go directly from False God to Afterglow and YNTCD was wedged in the middle, because it does not fit there

Sam Hadlock

I get similar vibes with peace and hoax, how it’s about the same relationship and peace is the speaker’s insecurities about themself in the relationship and hoax is their insecurities about their partner 😅

Sam Hadlock

This is super interesting! It actually makes a lot of sense! I love how cohesive the entire album is!

English Teacher KP

Ok, so here’s my little nonsense opinion: I have this theory that Afterglow and False God are about the same fight. So you start with False God, things seem to be going wrong, but the speaker says “hey, we can figure this out. As long as we love each other, we can fix anything.” And then you follow it up with Afterglow which is more of a “ok, I messed up real bad. I don’t think I can fix this. Please don’t leave.” Idk why, but I always have to listen to the two songs one after the other.

Sam Hadlock

Thank you! I'd originally put VIII and then realized that we're already on part IX, and I guess I forgot to erase the V 🤦🤦🤦 Oops! I fixed it, though 😊😊😊

English Teacher KP

😅 9 is just IX not VIX

Sebz Dev

Makes sense! I like the idea of it having a literal and figurative meaning!

English Teacher KP

Teacher, I always thought about that part that talks about ocean and fly in a ambiguous and double meaning (conotation/denotation, as you explained), because Joe is from UK so "the ocean separating us" could be literally the Atlantic. And she actually flyed "to him" in the beggining of their relationship. So... maybe means both ways? The metaphoric and the literal? Idk, I always interpretated this part this way.

Definitely same vibes! Love your point about the 'body of Christ"! Thank you so much for watching!

English Teacher KP

Love the video!!! I love this song so much. I don't usually go for jazz but when Taylor Swift does it it's just *chef's kiss* For me I interpret the religious elements to be alluding to the fact that with religion you can never objectively prove that there is a god let alone any one specific god. In the beginning of the song she's talking about how them getting together in the first place was a bad idea because it didn't look like they'd work out but the emotions were still intense anyway so they gave it a shot. It seems like she's showing that there are times when they fight or they think the other person is being ridiculous and things get hard, but they're able to move past that because they have good communication and understanding from the "confessions and forgiveness" bit. It feels like the song is showing that they don't know things are going to work out, but they're choosing to believe it will anyway just like a follower of a religion chooses to believe even though there's a chance the religion is wrong and the god might not be real or "false." And I like this idea that they have their own version of religious objects and events like her hips being an altar and how they have communion like they're practicing and participating in their religion which is what keeps it healthy. It is also interesting that there's so many allusions to their physical relationship since in Christianity a group of followers or a church are considered the "body of Christ" and with her hips being the altar and his lips having religion she's almost making that literal. I don't know I just think about religion in that angle a lot because my math teacher (I graduated from a private Christian high school) would tell us a story that might not be true about how some mathematician (I want to say Pythagoras but I'm probably wrong) said once that he didn't know if there was a god or not, but he chose to believe there was just in case. It's a silly story but I don't know, same vibes.

Poorly Fleshed Skeleton

I hope you all enjoy this! As I listened to the song a few more times, I really started to consider what "God" means to different people. It's interesting because, in the video, I mention that a God is something/someone you worship, but I think it's more than that. The idea of "God" is comforting to people. "God" symbolizes grace. "God" provides protection and refuge. It makes sense that the speaker would liken these aspects of religion to a relationship...especially one as intense and special as the one described throughout the album. What are y'all's thoughts???

English Teacher KP