Analysis

GRAVITY

BY: Sara Bereilles

Sara Bereilles’s single “Gravity” released on her album titled “Little Voice” on February 3, 2009. If someone were to listen to this song for the first time, they would think it’s a typical heartbreak, love song about a girl wanting to be free from her current relationship. However, under the surface it serves a deeper purpose and message.

There are many different ways this song could unravel in, but I’ve always thought that the true underlying concept is addiction. I hear this song not only from the point of view of a lover, but also through the eyes of an addict. In the very first verse Bereilles says, “Something always brings me back to you. It never takes too long. No matter what I say or do, I still feel you here from the moment I’m gone.” If someone were to hear this for the first time, they would most likely think it is talking about love, but underneath that layer, it is an addict talking about the drug or substance that they are addicted to. They know that it won’t take long for them to get their next fix because the addiction is so strong that it lingers with them wherever they go.

The second verse says, “You hold me without touch. You keep me without chains. I never wanted anything so much, than to drown in your love and not feel your pain” (Bereilles). The addict is explaining how this drug makes them feel whole and that they just want to be able to engulf themselves in it without having to feel the emotional and physical pain that goes hand and hand with being involved with it. This could be a reference to withdrawal.

In the chorus Bereilles goes on with, “Set me free. Leave me be. I don’t want to fall another moment into your gravity. Here I am and I stand so tall, just the way I’m supposed to be. But you’re onto me. And all over me.” The chorus and the bridge are the most important pieces to getting the overall message across to the listener. That message is a message of feeling trapped and helpless. This addict knows the predicament they’re in and they’re crying out for help. They want to feel normal and when they start to feel healthy and feel like they are finally standing tall, unashamed, and proud, they can still feel that very powerful addiction all over their body and mind- in a very real way.

The third verse says, “You love me cause I’m fragile, when I thought that I was strong. But you touched me for a little while, and all my fragile strength is gone” (Bereilles). Most addicts usually fall into an addiction through a fragile or weak state of mind. Once a person who is unstable to begin with starts becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol, it is even harder for them to fight it and get rid of the addiction. To get rid of an addiction, you must be strong willed and willing to fight for yourself. No one can force addicts out of their addictions except themselves. So if a person was not strong willed to begin with, how can he or she fight for themself to be healthy? Many people in society think that it is a choice to be addicted to something and that people can get out of addictions easily. It is not a choice and that is what I think Sara is trying to say in this verse. She is talking about how fragile she is and that is why this drug loves her so much. She doesn’t have the strength to fight it like other people can. She tries, however with no avail, because when she thinks she is finally being strong, the drug enters back into her life and the strength that she thought she had is now gone. She purposefully uses the contradictory phrase of “fragile strength” so emphasize that the little strength she did have, really was not that strong at all.

In the bridge and climax of the song, Bereilles really channels the pain and heartache that an addict feels through the words, “I live here on my knees as I try to make you see that you’re everything I think I need, here on the ground. But you’re neither friend nor foe, though I can’t seem to let you go. The one thing that I still know is that you’re keeping me down.” She is saying that the drug she is so dependent on metaphorically does not let her stand and live her life. She is kept on her knees, struggling to be free from its grasp. Throughout this whole song she is using metaphors to compare and show similarities between a possessive relationship between a man and a woman, to the relationship between an addict and their drug addiction. She goes on to say that the drug is not a friend or a foe. Many addicts don’t know what to think about the drug that they use. They don’t know whether it is good or bad. It makes them feel good and is an escape, but it also has made them dependent and gives them withdrawal symptoms. There are pros and cons but generally, most people know drugs are bad because that is what society tells us. So she goes on and finishes the bridge of the song by saying that the one thing she does know, even though she doesn’t have the strength to get up, and rid herself of her addiction, that it is hurting her.

At the end of the song, Bereilles finishes it by repeating the words she said in the very beginning. “Something always brings me back to you. It never takes too long.” She’s just reiterating the fact of her knowledge that, no matter how far she seems to come, in the near future she will feel the pull of the metaphorical leash around her neck, attached to the addiction, telling her that it’s time to come home yet again.

            


Bareilles, Sara. "Gravity." Little Voice. Epic Records. February 3, 2009. Digital File.