“True Love” by Tobias Jesso Jr.
Usually in attempts to define what actually counts as “true love”, the definition would be something along the lines of unconditional affection between the parties involved. That’s basically what’s being relayed in this song.
Tobias Jesso Jr. is more of a writer than singer himself. And these lyrics are actually deep enough, so to speak, that it can be ascertained that yes, in the case of this song we’re dealing with a songwriter whose skills are above the norm.
For instance, the bridge does an effective job of relaying the concept that both of the lovers in the featured relationship have what can be deemed self-esteem issues, without ever actually making such an assertion forthrightly. Indeed, there’s more being said throughout this song indirectly than there is overtly.
And going back to the self-esteem of the subjects, more to the intended point, as insinuated throughout, is that these are two average people we’re talking about here. In other words, there doesn’t seem to be anything really extraordinary about either of them. For instance, the male is depicted as someone who is struggling financially and is even depressed accordingly.
The female is also shown to be a hustler, i.e. having to grind particularly hard on the field due to a lack of affinity for schooling, on top of being argumentative. But her partner doesn’t judge and in fact is patient when dealing with her.
“True Love”
Or, let’s flip this from another angle. Some girls would dump their man if he “can’t afford” certain things, and certain guys would shy away from a woman who is unjustly argumentative. But since this is a case of “true love”, apparently such thoughts aren’t crossing either of their minds.
And again, such is what “true love” constitutes as commonly understood. That is, premise-wise, a recognition that your partner may not be wholly ideal, in addition to an underlying understanding that, if so desired, you could probably go out there and find somebody else who’s strong where your current sweetheart is weak. But since you are committed to the relationship, like your mind doesn’t even go there.
At the same time, being cognizant of your own deficiencies, there may also be an internal fear that you rather will end up the victim of the dumping.
Or, you get the idea. True love is not the same as a fairytale romance. The latter is more about scoring a partner that the world at large views as being ideal. But the former is more along the lines of understanding that the emotional co-dependency between you and the person you’re currently with is too strong to walk away from for suspect reasons.
Tobias Jesso Jr.
Tobias Jesso Jr. is a musician from Canada (though reportedly based in L.A.) with a discography dating back to 2015. That was the same year that he dropped “Goon”, his only studio album to date. Since then he has become more established in the industry as a behind-the-scenes’ man, i.e. writer and producer. In that regard, Tobias has in fact worked with some of the biggest names in the game, such as Adele, Shawn Mendes and Harry Styles.
But that said, he also has a couple of singles to his own credit, the first of which is “True Love”, a song that came out sometime around mid-2014. And at least one prominent music site has classified this song as a demo as opposed to single proper, which may be why there is no official release date for the track. But what is recorded is that Jesso Jr. wrote (and also presumably produced) “True Love”.
Notable Usage of “True Love”
Canadian TV comedy series “Shoresy” features “True Love”. It appears in the 6th episode of Season 1, titled “Don’t Poke the Bear”. The track was played during the time Shoresy returns to play ice hockey with his team.
