“Cough Syrup” by Melanie Martinez
Melanie Martinez’s “Cough Syrup” mirrors a sense of misguidedness, and a hope to put an end to the misery the narrator feels through any means possible. Here, she suggests being fed up with life in general. The singer also expresses the need to break out of a state of boredom and to chase after a world full of opportunities to help her succeed.
The song mainly highlights the desire to live life the way the narrator believes it is supposed to be through approved ways. It must be noted that the song ends with the desire for more cough syrup indicating an addiction to a substance or other means of solving the problem.
“Cough Syrup” in this song may symbolize several cures to the singer’s current ‘failed’ life, including substance abuse, or an overdose which could mean suicide.
Facts about “Cough Syrup”
- This is one of the songs that Melanie Martinez covered as a teenage contestant on “The Voice”. She did so as one of the final 12 contestants during season 3 of the show on 12 November 2012.
- The song’s original artist is American rock band Young the Giant. And the band released their original version of “Cough Syrup” in 2011.
- The writers of the song are four of the members of Young the Giant (E. Cannata, F. Comtois, S. Gadhia and J. Tilley). Songwriter Ehson Hashemian also receives writing credit as he assisted the band in composing the tune.
- And the entire band produced it with additional input from Joe Chiccarelli.
Original Version
Below is the band Young the Giant performing the original version of “Cough Syrup”:
The members of the band wrote this song during a very frustrating period of their lives – when success kept eluding them. Many see the lyrics of the song as the band’s way of telling the world they needed help.
