Oh, those magic words that mean “I’m breaking up with you, but I don’t want you to feel bad about it”. Or quite possibly “we went on 2 Tinder dates, and you chewed with your mouth open both times, so this is clearly not going to work out”. We’ve all been there.
Anyway, this isn’t a song about despairing for what could have been, but celebrating what IS: being single!
Today's bonus video is a performance of It's Not Me, LIVE from my bathroom!
This song is just the slightest parody of Taylor Swift’s style from her early period. It seemed like, for a while there, a lot of her songs had the tone of “I’m awesome, and you suck, and we were together, but now we’re not”. I say this as someone who has listended to a decent amount of her catalog, and has a good amount of respect for what she does, and is imitation not the sincerest for of flattery? Maybe.
While the writing style is a parody of Taylor Swift, the production is an homage to Max Martin, specifically his work in the 2010s. From the poppy guitar tone, to the relatively sparse instrumentation, to the funky slap bass, it all SCREAMS mid-2010s dance pop, at least to me.
Throw my feet up on the table
Bare feet on the maple
With no one here to tell me I can’t
Drink milk straight from the carton
Feels just like I’m startin’
My life all over again
You know it’s not as though it wasn’t hard
To say our sweet goodbyes
But single life is not so bad
It’s only lonely half the time
We had a laundry list of problems
That we could have solved
If you only had the heart
And if I had the resolve
If it was meant to last forever
We’d still be together
But this I know is true
It’s not me, it’s you
Livin’ single’s so much better
Stay up ’til whenever
And when I finally crawl into bed
I sleep late, and when I wake up
There ain’t no need to make up
The sheets, ’cause in a while I’ll just be in ’em again
You know it’s not as though it wasn’t hard
To say our sweet goodbyes
But single life is not so bad
It’s only lonely half the time
We had a laundry list of problems
That we could have solved
If you only had the heart
And if I had the resolve
If it was meant to last forever
We’d still be together
But this I know is true
It’s not me, it’s you
I don’t take pride in taking sides or
Saying who’s to blame
And having you around was great, but
Also super lame
There’s nothing wrong with leaving socks and
Towels on the floor
It’s not a cause for argument
Or reason to walk out the door
Sometimes it is an issue
Just how much I miss you
But it’s nothing that I’d ever admit
‘Cause I’m happy with the freedom
For no logical reason
I can put my dishes in the sink and
Let ’em sit
You know it’s not as though it wasn’t hard
To say our sweet goodbyes
But single life is not so bad
It’s only lonely half the time
We had a laundry list of problems
That we could have solved
If you only had the heart
And if I had the resolve
If it was meant to last forever
We’d still be together
But this I know is true
It’s not me, it’s you