“Sippy Cup” by Melanie Martinez

“Sippy Cup” narrates the story of the protagonist, Cry Baby’s childhood where she witnesses her drunk mother murdering her father and another woman he cheats with in their home. In the chorus, she emphasizes on the fact that you cannot solve a problem by merely dressing it up and making it look good on the outside. She makes a reference to Syrup, which in this case means alcohol. She states that alcohol is still alcohol even if it is poured in a cute sippy cup; or in general terms, problems still persist no matter how much one tries to cover them.

It appears that the narrator’s innocence, peace and memories have been bruised as a result of her family situation. She expresses her emotions by talking about a corpse in a cradle. As narrated in the story, Cry Baby’s mother in her drunken state chose to hide the dead bodies of her husband and his lover in a cradle. However, the singer metaphorically uses this corpse in a cradle to depict the fact that her childhood, the peace and family love that existed is now dead, despite her mother’s attempt to conceal it even in plain sight.

In all, the lyrics of this song vividly describe the dark events that happen in a distraught family. In doing so, they send a message that a problem can’t simply be solved by concealing it.

Facts about “Sippy Cup”

Atlantic Records released “Sippy Cup” on 31 July 2015 as the third single from Melanie Martinez’s first album, “Cry Baby”.

This track serves as an unofficial sequel to another Melanie Martinez track, “Dollhouse”, as well as the link between her first EP (also entitled “Dollhouse”) and first album.

Martinez wrote this song as well as directed its music video, which premiered on Spin the day before the track was released. The other co-writers are Kinetics and the track’s producer, One Love.

The only country where “Sippy Cup” charted was Melanie Martinez’s native United States, where the track has also been certified Gold.

Melanie Martinez’s “Cry Baby” Album

“Cry Baby” is an album Melanie Martinez officially released on August 14 of 2015 as her debut studio album.

American record label, Atlantic Records, was responsible for the official release of the album.

“Cry Baby” was released in four formats, CD, digital download, audio cassette and vinyl. The vinyl and CD packages came along with a storybook with illustrations from Chloe Tersigni.

The album showed signs of success as early as its first week of release, recording sales of over 40,000 units in the US alone. By August of 2016, it had sold a little over 260,000 copies there. Its remarkable performance on the market, resulted in a 2x platinum certification from the OCC and the AMPROFON in the US and Mexico respectively. It received a platinum certification in Canada and gold in the UK as well as Denmark.

“Cry Baby”, debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and peaked at No. 32 on the UK’s OCC. It also showed some class on charts in a number of countries, including Canada (10), Mexico (7) and Spain (6).

Music critics were quite generous with praises for the album. ABC News’ Allan Raible, scored it 4.5 out of five stars. Matt Collar of Allmusic was full of praises for the singer alongside her album, comparing her to music legends like Björk, Lorde, Lana Del Rey, and Beyoncé.

On SPIN Magazine’s “The 25 Best Pop Albums of 2015” list, “Cry Baby” was placed at No. 22.