Jade “Plastic Box” (Vocoded)

So there are two variations of this song, and I prefer this one by a long shot. Personally I don’t like the original version at all really. Sorry. I know plenty of people do and that’s great. I was so excited to come across this one, to me it’s soooooo much more emotional, better vocally, and has an actual bridge! I actually can feel what she’s going through emotionally in this one, not so much the original.

Now, I’ve heard songs about this concept before. It’s basically about her being jealous of his exes and wanting to be the only one he’s ever loved. In all honesty I don’t really get people who are jealous of someone’s exes, I just can’t relate. To me, it’s better that they’ve had people before you, because they hopefully learned things. This means they know more of what they want and don’t, and if you fit into that, it’s a great thing. I’d rather be someone’s last love, I don’t care that others came before me. So for that reason the whole notion of the song is just kind of more interesting to me than anything. But here’s what I really like about it.

It’s a good story… she found his old love letters to his exes and decided to read them. So we can all agree that she shouldn’t have done that, and what she’s feeling is kind of her fault meaning she brought it on herself. But in the second verse, she actually got me to feel some of the pain she went through. These lines really made me go “ow, ok, that does hurt.” For a second, I got it.

“Are you sure you feel the same way?
Cuz it took me months and only took her a day
To make you jump in
I read it in your handwriting”

Oooh man. It was right there in his handwriting. Yeah, I feel that. Ouch. Because it wasn’t just accusatory assumptions, it was 100% from the heart, his feelings were totally undeniable. So hey, I understand. I see how she knows she loves him so much, and questioned for a second if he loves her the same, because what he described about the ex she probably feels about him.

However, what she didn’t see in that moment, is it’s a great thing it took him months to jump in with her. It means that he’s now more cautious, he knows jumping in right away is a terrible idea. There’s a reason things didn’t work out with that ex, he doesn’t want to repeat the past. It’s simply her insecurities playing tricks on her, being cautious isn’t related to someone loving you less.

If that part about the handwriting wasn’t there, I don’t think it would have been as emotionally impactful. This is a great example of why small details matter if you’re trying to convey specific emotions. It’s one thing to know what hurts, it’s another to know why it hurts.

Now the bridge that isn’t in the original:

“Can we tear out all the pages? I’ll pretend I never saw
I know your privacy’s invaded, promise I won’t open up that door
I know I shouldn’t cry about something you had before
I just need a little reassurance that you love me more”

It’s good that she acknowledges what she did was wrong, though trying to pretend she didn’t do it as just as irrational and impossible as her wish to erase his exes lol. She has to own it. I liked the sadness in her voice in the line about how she shouldn’t cry about what he had before. She definitely shouldn’t. It’s sad how someone’s past that can’t be changed makes some people so upset. It can be very frustrating from the POV of the person on the other side as well. I can see something like this type of thing starting fights, breaking relationships etc. It really depends on the approach and if both people can have a healthy conversation about it, which it seems like she was trying to go for to me. I say that because she didn’t say it with anger, , wasn’t putting blame on him for it, and admitted how irrational it is. Unfortunately I’m not confident most people would discuss this in a healthy way.

Some other tiny favourite parts… Like how she almost sounds like she’s gritting her teeth on the first prechorus when she says “burn your history” for the second time. Also love all the vocal stuff and harmonies she adds to the last iteration of “I wanna burn your history” on the second prechorus.

As I pretty much said earlier, I almost glossed over this song, but this version saved it. I like how there was a lot of pain conveyed here rather than heated jealousy which usually is off-putting to me. It made me feel for someone in this situation more than I might otherwise. I like that. Check it out.

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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.