“You Can Have It” by Chelsea Cutler
On the surface, i.e. judging by the chorus, Chelsea’s “You Can Have It” reads a lot like a sex song. For here we have the vocalist telling the addressee, her lover, that he can ‘have it if he wants it’, with the “it” being ‘her body’.
But as revealed in the verses, sex is just part of the equation. And what she is actually looking forward to is spending some carefree quality time with him. She is hoping they can both spend an extended weekend of getting high/intoxicated and just chillin’ on the “Lower East Side”, i.e. a well-known section of New York City.
YOLO! YOLO!
And the implication is that the reason she wants to make the most of this experience is because such opportunities to hang out with the addressee are not always available.
Or it may be that this is their first romantic excursion. The bridge especially implies that maybe this is a budding relationship. For therein Chelsea is telling the apple of her eye that instead of being hesitant, he should be bold, make a move and lose control.
This is her own ideological way of expressing YOLOism, i.e. ‘living in the moment’ as opposed to being limited by apprehensions or what have you. But anyway, the lyrics do kinda read as if they have yet to really take it there, i.e. the vocalist assuring the addressee that he can in fact “have it” as opposed to having already had it.
And beyond that, Chelsea Cutler has explained “You Can Have It” as sort of a feminist anthem, i.e. one in which a female is speaking from a romantic “place of dominance”.
And whereas vocalist doesn’t necessarily come off as being domineering per se, it is quite unusual to come across a song by a lady espousing a weekend of weed- and alcohol-fueled sex, though of course she doesn’t come off quite that bluntly.
Thesis Sentiment of “You Can Have It”
But the thesis sentiment of this song, i.e. a woman encouraging her romantic interest that she will satisfy him if he is actually bold enough to take the leap, is one we come across pretty often in pop tunes.
Quick Facts
As of the release of this track on 13 August 2021, Chelsea Cutler is a relative newjack on the scene, having dropped her first album, How to Be Human, in 2020.
But she has quite a few singles under her belt, dating back to 2016. The most-successful of the lot is 2019’s “You Were Good to Me” alongside Jeremy Zucker. And she has experienced notable success as a feature of Quinn XCII on Flare Guns (2019) and teaming up with Kygo on Not OK (2019).
Also prior to going pro, Cutler, who also tends to write her own songs, experienced notable success as an independent artist.
Chelsea wrote “You Can Have It” with James Ghaleb and one of the track’s producers, Kevin White. And the other producer is Mike Woods, who along with White form a musical duo known as Rice N’ Peas.
As of the release of this track Chelsea is 24 years old.
