FACE by BROCKHAMPTON Lyrics Meaning – Unraveling the Emotional Labyrinth
Lyrics
I just wanna love ya
Tell me what you’re waiting for
I just wanna hold ya
Tell me what you’re waiting for
I just wanna love ya
Just wanna hold ya
Never would lie to you
Tell me what you’re waiting for
What you waiting for?
It feels like I can see the past in your eyes
I know the future has been passing you by
These other niggas, they just passing your time
They don’t know how to ride the tidal waves that crash in your thighs
But I got the dream, and if you believe, then I can take you somewhere that is pristine
I’m keeping it clean, my title is mean, they boxed in a Simba, we broke out the seams
Don’t make me a fiend, I know what I want, I’m working to get everything that I need
But I got a plan for ya, I’m taking a stand for ya, I care for ya
What’s your motive with me baby
‘Cause I don’t trust nobody lately
I twist and turn, moving just like a serpent
New times are coming just like a virgin
Get you all outta my head
Cause lately I’m better off dead
I say this all out of respect
Sometimes I want nothing with you
Wearing your love like medallions
Cause I know thousand men want ya
Wants the menages
Fucking riding shotgun, slap your buns
Melting, fading, under stars and the sun
85, 90, gon’ bust out the gun
Know they sent me from the neck of the woods
Change my name, state so they never could
Tell me what you’re waiting for
I just wanna love ya
Tell me what you’re waiting for
I just wanna hold ya
Tell me what you’re waiting for
I just wanna love ya
Just wanna hold ya
Never would lie to you
Tell me what you’re waiting for
What you waiting for?
I need a friend (I need a friend)
And you need a home (you need a home)
I love when you come (I love when you come)
I still feel alone
You make it warm in my bed
Butterflies in my head
Sun rise and it set
But you don’t love me like you say you do
White lies hold the hidden truth
You keep leaving when I need you most
It’s true what they say about love had and love lost
Here you are and now you’re gone
I’m left alone in the same bed
I wake up in a cold sweat
Please don’t make me wait long
I just wanna be your main boy, your main, your main one
See, I don’t want nobody but you
See, I don’t want nobody but you
I spent the day by my lonesome
Who do you call when there’s no one?
No one ever did what you did for me and to me
My bed is cold and indented where you used to sleep
Tell me what you’re waiting for, shit
Tell me what I’m here for
Tell me what you’re waiting for
I just wanna love ya
Tell me what you’re waiting for
I just wanna hold ya
Tell me what you’re waiting for
I just wanna love ya
Just wanna hold ya
Never would lie to you
Tell me what you’re waiting for
What you waiting for?
Within the spiraling depths of BROCKHAMPTON’S ‘FACE’, lies an intricately woven tapestry of longing, vulnerability, and the haunting tug of love’s complexities. Released as part of their 2017 album ‘Saturation’, this mesmerizing track takes listeners on a journey through the oscillating emotions that come with intimate connections and the desire for something more.
Peeling back the layers, ‘FACE’ isn’t just another love song. It’s a raw, unguarded confession delineating the pain of unrequited feelings, the heat of passion, and the coldness of solitude. It maps out the geography of human desire, highlighting landscapes marked by anticipation and territories hollowed out by absence.
A Landscape of Desire: The Pull of Love and Expectation
The chorus of ‘FACE’ reverberates with a yearning simplicity – ‘Tell me what you’re waiting for, I just wanna love ya.’ Herein lies the heart’s plea, the aching space between what is and what could be. The speaker craves connection but is met with hesitation. This waiting is palpable throughout the song, serving as a reminder of how much we stake on the promise of another’s affection.
Behind these words is a subtext – the silence that often screams louder than declarations of love. The waiting becomes a canvas for the listener to project their own experiences of longing and the torment of emotional stasis.
Tidal Emotions and Seductive Promises
The verses speak to the depths of infatuation, where the speaker assures their object of desire that unlike ‘these other niggas’, they understand the ‘tidal waves that crash in your thighs.’ It portrays a confidence in their ability to navigate the storms of their love interest’s world. Yet, this assurance is tainted by an underlying insecurity revealed through the vehemence of their persuasion.
Interspersed in these verses is a seductive promise of escape to ‘somewhere pristine’. The clean slate, however, is not merely a physical space but a metaphorical one, representing hope for an idealized love, untainted and perfect. In their attempt to convince, they might be revealing more about their own escapism than a truly shared dream.
Doubt Shadows Commitment: The Dark Side of Love’s Coin
Contrasting the strong affirmations is an undercurrent of mistrust: ‘What’s your motive with me baby, ‘Cause I don’t trust nobody lately.’ This line uncovers the other side of yearning – the fear of betrayal. It inevitably calls into question the speaker’s own intentions and the paranoia that encroaches when love’s foundation feels unstable.
Further, the lines ‘Moving just like a serpent, New times are coming just like a virgin’ employ powerful imagery to evoke change, but also caution. The serpent is both a symbol of transformation and deception, hinting at the duality of growth and the potential for harm in this emotional landscape.
Of White Lies and Absences: Bed as Battlefield
What begins in hope invariably veers into the contemplation of loss. The line ‘White lies hold the hidden truth’ exposes the grim reality that often accompanies the bliss of love – deceit. These ‘white lies,’ while seemingly innocuous, signify the fractures in the truth of their connection.
The listener is then transported to the most intimate of spaces – the bed, which becomes a symbol of the chasm between two lovers. As the speaker wakes ‘in a cold sweat’, they confront the emptiness left in the aftermath of promises that have evaporated like a dream upon waking.
The Torturous Echo of Soulful Solitudes
Perhaps the most poignant aspect of ‘FACE’ is the candid expression of isolation. ‘Who do you call when there’s no one?’ encapsulates the echoing void that follows lost love. It speaks to the desperation for companionship and the haunting realization that the presence which once filled one’s life has receded into silence. This is the song’s cryptic core – the struggle to hold onto the intangible.
The song ends by returning to its chorus, a refrain that mirrors the cyclical nature of longing. The repetition becomes a mantra of hope and heartache, a motif that resonates with anyone who has ever yearned for a ‘FACE’ to break through the solitude. Thus, BROCKHAMPTON’s ‘FACE’ is not just a song, but a mirror to the complexities of the human heart, revealing as much about the listener as it does about the creators.
