I’m sorry about your eye
I’ll find a way to make amends
it’s only that sometimes
I have to break before I bend
Ain’t So Easy uses brilliantly observant, fucked-up words to compress the breadth of a man’s abuse of a woman —the violence, the stunted demi-apologies, the minimization, the conflation of love and possession, and the steadily escalating threats— into just under five minutes of song, pairing those darkly persuading, persuasive lyrics with an almost disturbingly upbeat ’80s folk-pop sound.
Which is the beauty of the thing; the Davids (Baerwald and Ricketts) made Ain’t So Easy as deceptively seductive as its subject. They tempt you to hum along, focus on the chorus, buy into the romantic hyperbole, and essentially… look the other way. Only when you begin to pay attention does the song smack you in the face with your own cheerful complicity.
Put that suitcase down
leave it for another day
stop this foolin’ around
I could never let you get away