“Tissues” by Yungblud

Yungblud’s “Tissues” is a song whose analysis can go in a couple of different directions. For starters, we do know that the titular “tissues” are a reference to that of the paper variety.  Also, on this particular track, Yungblud decided to break away from his established, shall we say bleaker modus operandi and instead, in his own words, sing about ‘happiness, euphoria and letting go’. 

Beyond that, we also know that the music video was designed to speak more specifically to the notion of, as director Charlie Sarsfield put it, “falling in love”. So in an attempt to make sense out of all that’s being put forth, we will proceed with this analysis as if the addressee is a romantic interest which, based especially on the first verse and chorus, can in fact be deemed as the case at hand. 

Additionally, we will tread forward under the assumption that the vocalist is portraying a sole character throughout – one who, as implied by the verses, would be the victim of a negligent and “sarcastic” lover, that being the addressee. 

But Yungblud is not countering being mistreated as people usually do, by likewise levying some abuse of his own. Instead, he is sympathizing with the addressee and telling this person that rather than ‘hiding your issues’, said individual should instead ‘blow them into her tissues’. In other words, they should feel free to let out their pent up angst, pain or what have you in front of the vocalist, as he’s basically providing a shoulder to cry on.

We all need Love

On top of sympathizing, Yungblud is also empathizing. For instance, he understands that “everybody wants to feel loved”. Indeed in the chorus, the singer flips the lyricism around to alternatively present himself as the person who is depressed. In that regard, maybe we can say that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.  That is to say that Yungblud does end up getting pessimistic, if you will, noting that he’s “in love again” but still very much looking forward to ‘being sad tomorrow’. And the reason he feels that way is because, based on past romantic experiences, he is convinced that the addressee will eventually desert him.

In Conclusion

Going back to the first sentence of this post, as you can see there’s a lot going on in “Tissues” – to the point where trying to tie it all into a concise thesis sentiment is a bit challenging. But in an attempt to do so nonetheless, let’s say that Yungblud is able to perceive that, when it comes to romance, we could all use a little sympathy.

Credits for “Tissues”

This song samples 1985’s “Close to Me”, one of the best-known songs from The Cure.

It should be stated that The band’s frontman, Robert Smith, personally gave Yungblud permission to use the track. Smith is also the writer of “Close to Me” and as such is credited as a co-author of “Tissues”, alongside the following:

• Matt Schwartz
• Jake Torrey
• Paul Meany
• Chris Greatti
• Yungblud

The latter five likewise being this song’s producers.

Release of “Tissues”

“Tissues”, which came out courtesy of Locomotion Entertainment and Geffen Records on 30 August 2022, is the fourth single from Yungblud’s self-titled 2022 album.