Halsey – colours
Hey guys!
I thought I’d do another lyrics analysis. Now, you may be aware that the actual song title is ‘color’ but, I’m British. And typing ‘color’ seems odd too me.
Now, I listen to a lot of music from a lot of different artists and genres. I appreciate a song’s lyrics more than their melodies. But, of course, I do take in account the progression of the melody because I believe it’s part of the story.
Now, picture me in a oversized jumper, with coffee (always coffee), and listening to this through earphones. Jamming or procrastinating, with me there is no in between. Or, don’t picture me at all. That is cool also.
So, shall we begin?
“Colours” was uniquely announced as the second single from Halsey’s debut ‘Badlands’ on January 21st, 2016. Considering the remarks about his family and addictions, it is evident that “Colours” is about The 1975’s frontman, Matty Healy. That’s why I thought this song was perfect. After I reviewed the 1975’s sophomore album earlier this month. In October of 2015, Halsey mentioned Matty at her concert, noting how it was the same venue that they met at, but during the concert she stated “it’s [my] stage now.” She has also mentioned him as an inspiring influence. Billboard brought him up in an interview, questioning the nature of their relationship, to which she responded: “We’re both attracted to characters, and we saw that in each other. I spent a lot of time watching him and he spent a lot of time loving being watched. But if you think he’s the first red-wine-drinking, pretty-boy rocker in skinny jeans I’ve … been associated with, you’re out of your fucking mind” Halsey posted an image on her Instagram account of what appears to be Healy emerging from a bed. She also made a post on her personal Tumblr in July of 2014 (deleted), describing her adventures with him and how he made her feel. Despite the depth of information provided, the two are not explicitly confirmed to have been a legitimate couple.
Colours follows a simple electro beat with hints of guitar solos and a indie progression. The topic of the song is about a relationship. The song starts with a little background information on the person Halsey is singing about. Introducing us to his distributive family life which is in shreds. Throughout the song, we learn that the person the song is about, is a drug addict and it is hinted that he may be depressed.
Lyrics
(first verse)
Your little brother never tells you but he loves you so,
he said your mother only smiled on her TV show,
your only happy when your sorry head is filled with dope,
I hope you make it till the day you’re 28 years old.
(pre chorus)
You’re dripping like an saturated sunrise,
you’re spilling like an overflowing sink,
you’re ripped at every edge but you’re a masterpiece
and now I’m tearing through the pages and the ink.
(chorus)
everything is blue,
his pills, his hands, his jeans
And now I’m covered in the colours
pulled apart at the seams and its blue.
everything his grey,
his hair, his smoke, his dreams
and now he’s so devoid of colour be don’t know what it means.
and he’s blue.
(second verse)
You were a vision in the morning when the light came through,
i know I’ve only felt religion when I’ve lied with you.
You said “you’ll never be forgiven ’til your boys are too,”
and now I’m waking in the morning but it’s not with you.
(Pre chorus)
You’re dripping like an saturated sunrise,
you’re spilling like an overflowing sink,
you’re ripped at every edge but you’re a masterpiece
and now I’m tearing through the pages and the ink.
(Chorus)
everything is blue,
his pills, his hands, his jeans
And now I’m covered in the colours
pulled apart at the seams and its blue.
everything his grey,
his hair, his smoke, his dreams
and now he’s so devoid of colour be don’t know what it means.
and he’s blue.
(Outro)
you were red and you liked me cause’ I was blue,
you touched me and suddenly I was a lilac sky
and you decided purple just wasn’t for you.
so, are you ready? Yes? Yes? Wait!! Let me go and get some coffee..
I’m back! Let’s go, go, go
“Your little brother never tells you but he loves you so,
he said your mother only smiled on her TV show”
This could, if the song is about Matty, be referring to Matty’s brother. Matty’s mum stars on a popular UK tv show, loose women, which could relate back to the line about smiling on the tv show. Unfortunately, not long after Matty was born, Denise (Matt’s mum) was diagnosed with post-natal depression. Causing her to be distance.
“your only happy when your sorry head is filled with dope,
I hope you make it till the day you’re 28 years old.”
this could relate to Matty’s drug dependency. Which, he has openly admitted to in many press interviews.
“I hope you make till the day you’re 28 years old”
this is one of my favourite lines out of the song. On the surface, it seems plain, almost boring. Right? Well, this line is actually pretty clever. It’s referring to the many, many music artists who have sadly died, due to drugs, when they was 27. These include Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, and more. Halsey is basically telling Matt that she hopes he can kick his drug dependency because she doesn’t want him to join the ’27 club’ which many of her idols have.
“You’re dripping like an saturated sunrise,
you’re spilling like an overflowing sink”
An excerpt from Halsey’s personal blog post dated July 2014 (currently deactivated):
“[We] talk rapidly and vigorously and trip over each other’s sentences like a sidewalk crack. […] He speaks like a pastor and trips over his words, his tongue struggles to meet his brain. That’s how a prodigy thinks. (Or it’s the drugs).”
As we know from the first verse and the remainder of her post, she’s retained a lot about him, regarding his family and overall personal life. Halsey uses a sink spilling over to represent his mannerisms in conversation, where he allows deep, dark things out into the open for her to learn. She isn’t digging it out of him, but no one’s turning the handle off, and so he continues. The verbs “dripping” and “spilling” work together to give us a picture of their colors as fluid. His colours are pouring out of him to influence her and eventually change her into a person that he doesn’t want. In a way, she is drowning in his overwhelming personality. “Sunrise” and “sink” are associated with the colours that represent both Halsey and her lover (red and blue). Having her blue become intertwined with his red shows that he became purple too, therefore ultimately changed by the relationship as well.
I also believe Halsey to be depicting her lover in a way of fascination, her lover always appeared to be soaking up whatever he could reach and grasp on to, only for it to exceed his limits, dripping the remnants of his actions and lifestyle onto those surrounding, especially Halsey herself.
As a child I remember filling up a sink was almost a childlike way of experiencing risk, watching in fascination as time would dissipate, before you knew you had to stop the flow of water, yet the anticipation prior held all the danger of the water overflowing. This suggests that as two vividly animated characters, Halsey and her lover’s relationship lay on fragile foundations, she knew there would come a moment where she hypothetically needed to pull the plug, yet the alluring aura of her lover left her stuck in fascination, watching him spill his personality onto her in a blissful haze
“you’re ripped at every edge but you’re a masterpiece
and now I’m tearing through the pages and the ink”.
Despite the fact that he is metaphorically ripped due to his addictions and tumultuous past, she still views him as a beautiful creation. She’s getting to know him through a deeper connection. As he continues to spill himself into the open, she’s dwelling in his emotions and thoughts (the pages and the ink) in order to understand him better, all which justify her mindset that he’s a work of art.
“everything is blue,
his pills, his hands, his jeans”
Near the end of the song, Halsey reveals that blue represents herself, and that once they merged, they were purple (in less metaphorical terms, they became one). Here, she emphasizes how he was submerged by her and her love which affected his life, but she also points out peculiar things about him, like his jeans and his habit of taking pills. Additionally, The 1975’s music video for “Girls” features a still frame of a bottle with hydrocodone pills, some blue and red in color, prescribed to Matty’s. As I mentioned before, Matty had depression and hasley, herself, as bipolar. Xanax, is also usually blue. Which, his basically mood stabiliser.
“And now I’m covered in the colours
pulled apart at the seams and its blue.”
Once they became involved with each other, their colours intertwined. Being submerged in his world literally ripped her apart due to being overly infatuated with him, and then losing herself in the process. In the bridge, Halsey talks about how becoming one with this person was ultimately their downfall – after he changed her, he did not want her anymore, even though he was the reason behind her becoming pulled apart at the
The setup for Halsey’s concerts typically consists of a dark, blacklight atmosphere with fluorescent blues drowning her during her performances. The use of her favorite color is perfectly fitting. From an interview with Complex Magazine:
“It’s just my creative color. It’s like so many things at once. It’s electric, and it’s bright, but it’s also calm. It’s also ethereal. Blue is just an otherworldly color to me. Blue is the sky. Blue is the sea. Blue for me represents the unexplored territory”
“everything his grey,
his hair, his smoke, his dreams
and now he’s so devoid of colour be don’t know what it means.
and he’s blue.”
Up until mid-2015, The 1975 were widely known for their black-and-white aesthetic, which would explain why Matty’s persona is drained. Even though he is characterized by the color red later in the track, Matty is submerged in his dark lifestyle, making him devoid of color. There is an obvious lack of color within and around him. Grey being a dull hue, it may represent sadness or death, which can correlate perfectly with how Matty views life. Each aspect of him described in these lyrics showcase the dark and mysterious vibe he gives off, leaving him with a troubled head on his shoulders.
“You were a vision in the morning when the light came through”
excerpt from Halsey’s personal blog post dated July 2014 (currently deactivated);
“I always wake up first. I sit at the desk and work quietly and glance at him in the sheets. Vulnerable and quiet. Soft face. Soft sounds.”
“i know I’ve only felt religion when I’ve lied with you.”
To many, religion is fully understood once it is felt deeply. Halsey never bothered to put her faith in anything, but when she is by his side, she is convinced that they can be together despite their personal issues. Just like love – you can’t see it, but you feel It. This could mean that to Halsey, what her and the person she’s singing about had, was like a religion. Their own special religion.
“You said “you’ll never be forgiven ’til your boys are too,”
and now I’m waking in the morning but it’s not with you.”
Following on the previous line about religion and the concept of forgiveness, this suggests Matty has sinned and so have his friends. The remaining members of The 1975 are his boys – his best friends to whom he is loyal. He lacks innocence and surrounds himself with a crowd that thrives off of bad influences. This line – “You said “you’ll never be forgiven ’til your boys are too,” is heavy with sarcasm – it almost sounds bitter, but also mockingly. In live performances, Halsey puts more vocal energy into this particular part of the song, expressing her frustration towards how this situation played out.
“and now I’m waking in the morning but it’s not with you.”- During their time together, each morning was the same – they’d wake up beside each other. Now that he’s no longer in her life, she’s still living, but her sadness is present as she misses what they shared. Note how the entirety of this verse is spoken in past tense, with the exception of this particular line. She laments the past – positively and bitterly – and also recognizes that her mornings are different now that he is not beside her when she wakes.
“you were red and you liked me cause’ I was blue,
you touched me and suddenly I was a lilac sky
and you decided purple just wasn’t for you.”
I have always seen these lines to mean that he was confident, loud and extroverted – these are the main personality traits characterised by the color red – and she was shy, reclusive and introverted – these are the main personality traits characterised by the color blue – and he liked her because she was the exact opposite of him. He liked extreme contrast between their personalities. However, he started changing her, as the relationship progressed she started becoming a little more confident like him. She started coming out of her shell. And he decided he didn’t want to be with her anymore, because she was becoming like him. He didn’t want to be with a person who was like him. And so he left her. When red and blue hues mix, they create purple. Since purple is a secondary color, it can only be created from the combination of those two primary colors. Symbolised as these two separate colors, when Halsey and Matty “touched” – in less metaphorical terms, became physical, or just involved with each other in general – she evolved into “a lilac sky,” which is a lighter shade of purple. His characteristics began to manifest in her, and once he realized that Halsey was altered, he decided she was not what he wanted.
I’m sorry that this was soooo long. I honestly didn’t mean it to be. This song is just full of metaphors and symbolism that it’s hard to just state one fact about each line. However, I do hope you enjoyed it.
see you next time!
vinylphilosophy 