Music Review: Kim Wilde "Four Letter Word"

Four Letter Word
Album: Close
Year: 1988

Kim Wilde is rethinking the purpose of love after a friend’s recent breakup in the indulgent ballad “Four Letter Word.”

Tragic strings and a morose keyboard open the single, setting a troubled tone. In the first verse, she says it’s horrible when a once-thriving relationship ends. The word love becomes meaningless. It’s yet another common part of the vocabulary: overused, misintrepeted and faddish. The loss of it tears up the heart. It’s a humbling fact knowing the heart cannot be whole ever again.

“I tell ya/It’s hell yeah/When love says goodbye it’s a four letter word/Because your heart knows/When love goes/The feeling is bad, it’s the pits of the world/It’s sad but true/When nothing you can do, can bring it back.”

In the chorus, he has gone home. However, her friend remained on the bridge, tears flowing down on her face as the rain drenches her. She thinks love is fictional. It’s meant to be played for a while and then ends at the final test. She thinks it what was the point of the past couple months anyhow if she was only going to get hurt again.

“Standing in the rain/She starts to cry/Is it all a game/She wonders why/Why it had to start/Why should it end, and take her apart.”

In the second verse, she reveals her pain to her friends and family. For her, it’s admitting that love can be brutul and excruciating. It has disillusioned her and lowered her self-confidence. Love no longer is a delightful word to say. Instead, it has a bitter aftertaste that lingers in the mouth. The relationship is over and there isn’t a chance she will get back together with him.

“Because she shows it/She knows it/But what can she do, its a four letter word/Because it shakes you/It breaks you/And when its the end, its the worst thing you heard/It’s over now/And nothing you can do can bring it back.”

In the second chorus, she shouts his name, hoping he will feel the shattering of her heart. She thinks guys are all like him. The humiliation and foolishness is more than she can bear and she wishes she could escape it. She wipes the tears off her face and puts on a brave face. She doesn’t want anyone to know she was dumped.

“Calling out his name/She starts to cry/Guys are all the same/She wants to die/Hide away the tears/No-one will see, and no-one must hear/
But oh.”

In the bridge, she wonders why her friend received a vulgar, mean love. He seemed nice and was a gentleman to her friend. Unfortunately, when the friends were gone, he called her names and tried to slap her. She thinks it’s awful.

“How can the love that she has be profain/And how can something that’s so beautiful/Just jekyll and hyde around/It’s so sad.”

The first verse and chorus are sung again to close the single.

Wilde can’t understand why love has to be difficult and agonizing. Her friend is a wreck after thinking she found the right guy. However, it was all a façade. It’s tough to see her friend be miserable. If it were up to her, love would be a binding commitment that once said, would take more than a stock phrase to get out of. There wouldn’t be any loopholes to bend. It would be clear cut and foolproof, weeding out the cheaters, liars, abusers, and users before they even spoke anything.

Wilde’s cloudy, sedate vocals are stagnant. From beginning to end, they remain on the same, even tone. It’s subtle to the point of nonexistent.

The old-fashioned, late 70s pop arrangement has dust and cobwebs in it. It moves at a snail’s pace, unwilling to sprint a little. As a result, it the melody gets dulled after a minute or so.

Wilde has many excellent singles to choose from, the mannered “Four Letter Word” is best left missed.

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