Grace Gachot “Built To Be Bad”

This hurt to listen to when I first heard it. The emotion she sings it with, the lyrics, ouch. If you’ve ever been lied to, had your self-worth destroyed and felt stupid for allowing it, this song will probably cause you to relive it. However, it will also be healing and help remind you that you’re not alone. Exactly what music is so great for. If you can’t relate and you like emotional storytelling, chances are you’ll appreciate it for that.

Right off the bat the piano is engaging. Her voice is captivating as soon as she starts singing. The first verse tells us how deeply she wanted to be loved by a guy and how hard she tried to make that happen. But it turns out she was just one of many girls. In the first prechorus, we learn about how painful it was to see him with one of them and how he told her it was just a friend. I love the way she says, “But I saw your face and your face don’t lie.” You can sort of hear that pain and anger happening at the same time. Such a great performance there.

Then the next lines set up the main theme of the song.
“I know I should just cut the ties
But I can’t be cold when I see you cry
Now it’s 4 AM as we talk online
And I hate myself”

She loves him deeply and he takes advantage of it. We can see that she’s aware she should leave, but allows herself to be manipulated, then is left hating herself for being so weak. It’s so sad because her self-worth is dying.

In the chorus we feel more anger come out “I should kick you the fuck out my life, break your heart how you broke mine.”
However she’s still plagued by her love for him, “but I’m not built to be bad to you.”
I like the phrasing of that line, it’s sweet and different.

Verse 2 just kind of continues with the theme, then the second prechorus gives us deeper details of the story. Her sister is reminding her of the multiple times this happened, and how he’ll never change. She acknowledges her sister is right, but she’d rather ignore it, telling herself it’s because she can’t be heartless towards him.

As much as she loves him, I think in these situations the bigger problem is fear of losing that person’s presence in your life. It’s easier to hate yourself than face that. If she allows herself to hate him, or especially lets herself realize she deserves better, she’ll want to let go of him and eventually will. Wrapping herself up in guilt and self-hatred prevents her from ever having to deal with that fear, so she has to allow his mistreatment to keep it going. Her protective narrative is convincing herself that breaking his heart by leaving makes her worse of a person than allowing her own to be broken by staying. Turns out she can be that heartless… to herself. Love can be complicated, crazy and depressing… And fear can keep us comfortable in chaos.

I really love her vocals throughout, they are so well done. She conveys all the emotions so perfectly… the deep pain, the anger, the inner conflict. The way the piano follows the emotions she expresses makes it even more intense. It’s a very well crafted song. How she delivers that last end chorus is really great too, she sounds like she’s barely holding it together, to me.

Listen to “Built to be Bad” here:

Bonus: Check out a duet version featuring Alex Sampson where he gives a male perspective. It starts at the second verse.The verse is kind of what you’d expect and the prechorus sets us up for the phone call he makes planning to express regret. However when he tries to speak, he freezes, and all he can do is listen to her. I like how just before the chorus, he says “all you said was…” then sings it with her. That makes enough sense within the parameters of the story. A lot of duet partners (nowadays especially) will sing the chorus together when it makes zero sense to. Drives me crazy.

They sound amazing singing together. Their voices blend nicely and he matches her energy. The end is my favourite part, they each split the chorus… the second half is his POV. He tells her she should move on and give him a taste of revenge, then says, “But you’re not built to be bad to me.”. He almost sounds sad at the fact that she’s too sweet to do it.

Check it out here (unfortunately the audio for the song on the official video is mono, if that distracts you, search for it on a different streaming platform):

I hope you liked both versions or at the very least one. If you enjoyed this post, don’t forget to come back for more.

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These are feelings not facts. Opinions aren’t intended to offend. For an in depth description of the intention behind this blog, click here.