Music Review: Cher Lloyd "Want U Back"

Cher Lloyd

Want U Back

Album: Sticks + Stones

Year: 2012

Cher Lloyd chastizes her ex-boyfriend for moving on in the contemptous “Want U Back.”

 A wobbling keyboard opens the single, setting a bungling tone. She thought her ex-boyfriend was lame. His awkwardness turned her off. When the quarterback of the football team began paying attention to her and flirting, she responded. She started seeing the quarterback on the side and eventually broke up with her ex-boyfriend once people around school were talking. However, she sees him as she watches from the cool table that he’s talking to another girl and holds her hand while they eat. She narrows her eyes and then mocks their cuteness to her new group of friends. (“Hey, boy you never had much game/Thought I needed to upgrade/So I went and walked away way way/Now, I see you've been hanging out/With that other girl in town/Looking like a pair of clowns clowns clowns.”)

     In the pre-chorus, she is seething inside, resentful that he will be making out with another girl. It bugs her that the new girl will go to the park by his house like she used to do. (“Remember all the things that you and I did first?/And now you're doing them with her/Remember all the things that you and I did first?/You got me, got me like this/And now you're taking her to every restaurant/And everywhere we went, come on!/And now you're taking her to every restaurant/You got me, got me like this.”)

    In the chorus, she says she can’t stand to see anyone with him. She still thinks of him as hers and wants to get back together with him. She thought he would wait for her and beg her to come back. However, she watches him smile in the hallways and she knows she made a mistake. (“ Boy you can say anything you wanna/I don't give a shh, no one else can have ya/I want you back/I want you back/Want you, want you back/I broke it off thinking you'd be cryin'/Now I feel like shh looking at you flyin'/I want you back/I want you back/Want you, want you back.”)

      She denies her cattiness and then says she’s better than the current girlfriend. She makes fun of the girlfriend’s walk, pretending to trip and of her fashion sense. She claims that he’s desperate and will return to her. She’s heard the girl is totally weird and he will be scared off. (“Please, this ain't even jealousy (jealousy)/She ain't got a thing on me (a thing on me)/Tryin' to rock them ugly jeans jeans jeans/You clearly didn't think this through/If what I've been told is true (is it true?)/You'll be crawling back like boo hoo hoo.”)

    The pre-chorus and chorus are sung again. In the bridge, she believed he would be hung up on forever, holding a torch. She also states she was his first love and no one will ever compare to her. (“Oh, I thought you'd still be mine/When I kissed you goodbye uh oh uh oh/Oh, and you might be with her/But I still had you first uh oh uh oh.”)

   The chorus is sung again. At the end, she makes engine noises and asks if sounds like a helicopter. (“Does this sound like a helicopter?”) It's random and attention-seeking instead of cute.

   Lloyd’s conceited, graceless vocals slash and tear at her ex-boyfriend and the girlfriend until they are in shreds. She views both of them with contempt and blames him for how awful she feels while not taking any responsibility. She sees herself as the victim even though she caused the situation in the first place. She did the ex-boyfriend a favor. He no longer has to put up with her.

  The smug “Want U Back” needs to be thrown off the tiny pegs holding it up, getting smacked with reality the entire fall down.