Music Review: Orianthi "According To You"

Orianthi

According To You

Album: Believe

Year: 2009

            Orianthi resents her boyfriend for humilating and chipping away at her self-esteem in the skilled  “According To You.”

       A gutsy guitar opens the single, setting a  teed off tone. She offers to drive. He remarks that she drives too fast and is going to get a ticket. She folds her arm across the chest and says that’s his opinion. She says can add to the list that she lacks common sense and really can’t become truly independent. Then, there’s the fact that she’s only concerned with getting her own way and throws a fit at the slightest thing. Of course, he can’t figure her out. She’s a trainwreck that is unreliable. Finally, she says “but let’s forget that speeding ticket you got when we went to the park.” (“According to you I'm stupid, I'm useless/I can't do anything right/According to you I'm difficult, hard to please/Forever changing my mind/I'm a mess in a dress, can’t show up on time/Even if it would save my life/According to you, according to you.”)

         In the chorus, she says she likes someone else. He thinks she’s pretty and an amazing girl. She intends to go out with him and adds that at worst, she finds out he’s a jerk. It’s nothing she hasn’t been there before. (“But according to him I'm beautiful, incredible/He can't get me out of his head/According to him I'm funny, irresistible/Everything he ever wanted/Everything is opposite, I don't feel like stopping it/So baby tell me what I got to lose/He's into me for everything I'm not/According to you.”)

        She continues that he thinks she has no personality and is depressed all the time. When she is in a good mood  and telling jokes, she has no comic timing to pull it off. Her mind is always somewhere else, fixating on the next sparkly thing. She imitates his frustrated sigh he uses around his friends and family and what he always say: “I do what I can.” (“According to you I'm boring, I'm moody/And you can't take me any place/According to you I suck at telling jokes/'Cause I always give it away/I'm the girl with the worst attention span/You're the boy who puts up with that/According to you, according to you.”)

            The chorus is sung again.

            In the bridge, she says she wants to be liked by someone again. It’s as though he has a filter that spins everything she does in a negative way. She says he put her in the position of leaving. (“I need to feel appreciated/Like I'm not hated, oh no/Why can't you see me through his eyes?/It's too bad, you're making me decide.”)

            In the extended chorus, she tells him he won’t let her take out his insecurity issues on her anymore. (“But according to me you're stupid, you're useless/You can't do anything right/But according to him I'm beautiful, incredible/He can't get me out of his head/According to him I'm funny, irresistible/Everything he ever wanted/Everything is opposite, I don't feel like stopping it/Baby tell me what I got to lose/He's into me for everything I'm not/According to you, you you/According to you, you you.”)

             In the final section, she repeats some of the first verse again. (“According to you I'm stupid, I'm useless/I can't do anything right.”)

          Orianthi’s spry vocals spit back every mean word her boyfriend has said to her without losing her cool. A couple months ago, she would’ve been afraid to tell him exactly how awful he made her feel. However, her crush and friends said she could stand up to him. It was her crush that made her see how twisted the relationship with her ex-boyfriend was.

          The single is written really well. The attribution is what holds it all together, allowing the tricky turns of language to flow.

        The  sharp  “According To You” loosens the tongue that has been held for too long.