Like I Used To by Sharon Van Etten Lyrics Meaning – A Deep Dive into Nostalgia and Transformation
Lyrics
Stole the dress I saw you in
Now nothing comes to mind
Saw a life as override
One more session overdrive
The ceiling is the roof
Change address and draw a line
Show my friends the silver line
Call my family just to know they’re there
Sleepin’ in late like I used to
Crossing my fingers like I used to
Waiting inside like I used to
Avoiding big crowds like I used to
Crawl the field and let you in
Brand my heart I found you in
To say nothing’s more apart
Will my lover be there, stay
Follow them to less the pain
The ceiling must be wrong
Well, my head’s gone today
Sell my past for a way
To sing and have something left to say
Pray my hands, pray my voice
Give the reason, take away
Make believe an order for to stay
Lighting one up like I used to
Dancing all alone like I used to
Giving it up like I used to
Falling in love like I used to
Open my heart like I used to
Making out long like I used to
Holding hands openly, rights to
Taking what’s mine like I used to
Like I used to (like I used to)
Like I used to (like I used to)
In a whirlwind of poignancy and lyrical brilliance, Sharon Van Etten’s ‘Like I Used To’ stands as a testament to self-reflection and the bittersweet dance between past and present. The song, cloaked in Van Etten’s trademark introspective style, serves as a dotted line between who we were and who we have become, exploring the tension of holding onto yesteryear’s habits while embracing the growth that inevitably follows life’s ebb and flow.
Van Etten’s keen sense of authenticity resonates through the track, inviting listeners to peel back the layered complexities of the lyrics that hint at a deeper narrative of change, longing, and the quiet acceptance of personal evolution.
A Canvas of Change: The Stained Skin of Memory
Van Etten begins with a visceral metaphor: ‘Will the marker stain the skin?’ This opening line immediately captures the permanence of experience—the idea that our past actions leave a mark not easily erased. The ‘stolen dress’ anecdote symbolizes past moments that we attempt to recapture, perhaps to no avail, as ‘nothing comes to mind’, suggesting a futility in trying to relive a bygone time when life felt simpler or more vivid.
The concept of erasure is robustly contradicted with the notion that ‘the ceiling is the roof’—a topsy-turvy perspective that challenges the listener’s understanding of boundaries and limitations. It poses a subtle interrogation of what we consider to be our past’s confines and the endless potential of the future.
Silver Lines and Family Ties: The Anchors of Our Existence
Changing one’s address and drawing a line is a potent symbol for moving forward and demarcating a before and after. Yet, in this progression, Van Etten places importance on the connections that tether us to stability: calling friends and family, highlighting these relationships as grounding elements amidst the shifting tides of identity and place.
Her refrain of forlorn activities ‘like I used to’ speaks to a longing nostalgia, each iteration a ghostly echo of former routines and comforts that while once familiar, now illustrate the distance traveled from the past self.
The Ethereal Stage: Of Ceilings, Limits, and Untold Stories
The repetition of ‘the ceiling is the roof’ elicits a sense of illusionary barriers we place on ourselves, perhaps paralleling with societal expectations or self-imposed constraints. Through this lens, Van Etten invites the audience to question these imposed limits and possibly shatter the glass ceiling of their former selves.
As ‘my head’s gone today,’ the line whimsically captures the universal feeling of disconnection with one’s previous convictions and underscores the transient nature of our thoughts and certainties.
The Crucible of Self: Reclaiming Identity Amidst Transformation
Van Etten’s words ‘lighting one up’, ‘dancing all alone’, and ‘falling in love’ are not only acts but are transformative rituals that characterize the solitary and deeply internal process of self-discovery and affirmation. As she embraces moments of solitude, there is this sense of reclaimed independence paralleled with the vulnerability inherent in change.
Her beckoning to ‘make believe an order for to stay’ might reveal the hidden struggle of accommodating oneself within the new reality one has carved out, a battle between maintaining old habits and succumbing to the metamorphosis into something new.
The Raw Elegance of Van Etten’s Directive: Taking What’s Mine
In the song’s crescendo, the declaration ‘Taking what’s mine like I used to’ emerges as a powerful pronouncement of reclaiming agency. Van Etten is not only reminiscing about the past; she’s seizing the essence of those experiences and embodying them in her current narrative.
With its haunting repetition, the title phrase ‘like I used to’ serves as both an anchor and a compass—it is as much a yearning for the simplicity of old patterns as it is a siren call for the embracement of the present moment and all its redefined outlines.
