by emma schoors
“Real Love Song” is a song about a dirty, rip out the whole of your soul love.
Rarely do love songs delve into the deep, dark, real territory that Nothing But Thieves have reached into with this song. It almost feels counterproductive to try and explain it in words other than the ones that Conor Mason sings so vulnerably.
“This is a dark song, real dark.
Feral tear off your skin to the bone dark.
I’ll drink myself to death dark.
Do anything to feel your breath on my neck dark.”
The second verse greets listeners with lyrics detailing the depth of destruction that comes with a certain type of love. The kind of love that grips you firmly by the shoulders and convinces you that you need it to breathe. The kind of love that sits in the forefront of your mind at all times, no matter what. The kind of love that is unconditional to a dangerous fault.
“This is a love song, so what?
Did it slide into your heart?”
These two lines have stuck to me like no other lyrics have for a while. There’s a grain of salt I carry with me while listening to love songs, because so many of them are sickeningly sweet. It feels pointless to listen to a love song that doesn’t pull at the heart strings. Well, this one does. It pulls at every last heart string.
“Got a thing about you, and it won’t go away.”
This song is about a love that won’t go away. There’s a love song (similarly deep, and similarly dark) by The National that references John Hersey’s novel My Petition For More Space. In the novel, Hersey details love in devastatingly accurate terms, terms with a likeness to “Real Love Song.” Terms that sum up the type of love that just won’t go away. “It was not just my hurt look, it was not really a hurt look at all. It was the look of a steep fall.”
A steep fall is what this song feels like. A steep fall into a form of love that’s not often explored because it hurts and it’s hard to write about. Somehow, Nothing But Thieves have turned this dark corner of love into a beautiful tune. That’s the funny thing about music; it can turn even the deepest of cuts into art.