Music Review: Bebe Rexha "I Can't Stop Drinking About You"

Bebe Rexha

I Can’t Stop Drinking About You

Album: TBA

Year: 2014

         Bebe Rexha knows she’s second choice in the  stinging “I Can’t Stop Drinking About You.”

           Restless synths open the single,  setting a resentful tone.  His arm falls on her stomach. She hears him snore. He stops breathing for a minute and she instantly turns her head to check on him. She puts her hand on her lips and hopes he will listen one day to her and go to the doctor. However, it’s his girlfriend that’s on his mind. When he talks some in his sleep, it’s a conversation with  his girlfriend. (“No one's gonna love you like I do/No one's gonna care like  I do/And I can feel it in the way that you breathe/I know you dream of her while you sleep next to me.”)

           In the chorus, she takes a flask out of her drawer and takes a long swig. He makes her feel wanted and beautiful. When he returns home, it will be to the woman he can’t leave. (“I can't stop drinking about you/I gotta numb the pain/I can't stop drinking about you/Without you I ain't the same/So pour a shot in my glass and I'll forget forever/So pour a shot in my glass cause it makes everything better.”)

              Off-key synths goes off  the rails, putting everyone on edge.

        He says she’s the best lover he’s ever had. She doesn’t dare bring up the subject of him breaking up with his girlfriend. She has been seeing him on the side for several years now. She’s his happiness but yet he wishes to be miserable. She doesn’t understand it. (“Darlin’ tell me what more can I do?/Don't you know that I was meant for you?/You say I feel like heaven on earth/But you'd never know what heaven was if it wasn't for her.”)

            The chorus is sung again.

          The off-key synths return.

           She takes another long swig and wipes her mouth with her hand. (“No one's gonna love you like I do.”)

                     The chorus is sung again.

              The off-keys return one more time.

              She ends  the single by putting her flask away and going back to sleep, thinking she is one he belongs to. (“No one's gonna love you like I do.”)

             Rexha’s virulent  vocals love him with all her heart but it angers her that he’d rather be with someone he hates. She starts to think she’s being used and she immediately needs a drink. She can’t let thoughts in. She can’t believe them to be true. Being the other woman, she’s already assumed to be unlikeable. However, she’s emotionally complex. She’s in the relationship for love and not for the thrill of it the cheating. The boyfriend is the villian here, not her.

                 The on purpose off-key synths are a great touch. It’s uncomfortable and gritty, stinking of grocery store wine and sweat. It’s as though as the listeners can feel the Rexha’s fingers dig into the bed as she tries to convince herself she’s happy.

             The  provoking “I Can’t Stop Drinking About You” sees things in grey, hanging onto hope with every sip.