Ben Howard’s “Rivers in Your Mouth” Lyrics Meaning

“Rivers in Your Mouth” is a song in which Ben Howard is imploring the addressee not to be so loose with his or her tongue. Thus the titular “river in your mouth” would actually be synonymous to speech, as in an abundance of words. And concerning this river, the singer is telling the addressee to “hold it in”.

You can view the lyrics, alternate interprations and sheet music for Ben Howard's Rivers in Your Mouth at Lyrics.org.
Lyrics of "Rivers in Your Mouth"

Now what is a matter of debate is who the addressee actually is, since there are really no details given about this individual other than he or she again being too talkative for Ben’s approval. The common interpretation is that he is singing to a romantic interest. However, it has also been postulated that he is singing about himself (i.e. revealing too much of his personal life via his singing career). And given certain details of this song, the latter theory is actually plausible.

For instance, the structure of the verses is such that he usually concludes by referencing himself. And the fourth verse in particular gives the implication that the talkative person may actually be him, since he states that he is “sick and tired” of “(begging) the world to change” and that despite his pleas “it don’t”. And if he is indeed exhausted from his “begging”, that means he must have engaged in a considerable amount of verbal activity.

Moreover in relation to the meaning of this song, Ben has stated that it “was something that was a relief from the way (he) was feeling”. That statement can also be interpreted as him having a dialogue with himself. Indeed in the chorus he states that he is ‘not himself today’ and is “not feeling okay”, which again are personal references.

Conclusion

But then he concludes the song by once again speaking to the addressee in the second person, addressing him or her as “you”. So this brings us to another statement Howard made in relation to this song, that he “don’t really like talking about how (he would) write songs, as it spoils things for the listener”. In other words, as with practically all of his tracks, the singer/songwriting is challenging the listener to apply his or her own understanding to its meaning. So overall, it may be logically concluded that he is singing to a close, loquacious friend (i.e. a girlfriend). But it also is not unreasonable to conclude that at other points he is actually referring to himself.

Release Date of “Rivers in Your Mouth”

This is the second song on the playlist of Ben Howard’s second album (I Forget Where We Were).It was released by Island Records in conjunction with Republic Records with the album on 21 October 2014.

Writing and Production

The song was written and produced by Ben Howard. And on the production side he was assisted by record producer Chris Bond.

Did “Rivers in Your Mouth” come out as a single?

No. The official singles from the album I Forget Where We Were are:

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