For my next post I will be discussing the 9th song on Mitski’s new album: Should’ve Been Me. This song is definitely one of my favorites off the album, I love the melody as well as the general idea of the song. 

The lyrics to Should’ve Been Me are as follows:

 

[Verse 1]

Well I went through my list of friends and found

I had no one to tell

Of this overwhelming clean feeling

Strange serenity

 

I really appreciate the first line because I think it’s something I and a lot of people can relate to. You have something you want to share or talk about, but after going through mentally or literally a list of friends you realize there is nobody fitting or left to share these things with. This feeling is very isolating, and I love how Mitski begins the song with this, being a great descriptor of her general feelings. She then describes having a confusing feeling of again, a theme of hers, being clean, as well as a sense of calm that shouldn’t be there. She wishes she could share it because it puzzles her. 

 

[Pre-chorus]

When I saw the girl looked just like me

And it broke my heart, the lengths you went

To hold me

To get to have me, ’cause

 

Mitski recalls seeing her past or past potential lover with a new girl of their own. She sees that their new girlfriend looks exactly like her. It seems that she genuinely does feel guilty for her past lover, knowing she broke their heart and witnessing how much she did by their desperate attempts to be at least with someone like her; to replicate what could’ve (or should’ve) been. This is why she feels strangely serene; she should be upset in being replaced but she is glad her former lover found someone, similar to her at that. 

 

[Chorus]

I haven’t given you what you need

You wanted me but couldn’t reach me

So you went into your memory

Relived all the ways you still want me

I haven’t given you what you need

You wanted me but couldn’t reach me

I’m sorry it should’ve been me

 

Mitski knows the reason that the person is seeking someone like her is because she deprived them of her love. They wanted to love her, but she was too emotionally unavailable to let them. So, they had to find a way to experience her, to go back to when she was there so they could feel her presence as they so badly wanted to. She repeats again, that she wasn’t able to be there for the other in the way she should have, and she is truly sorry she couldn’t. 

 

[Verse 2]

I’d be going ’bout my day until a hand

Would come and lift me out

And drop me in the middle of a labyrinth

Where I’d be stuck a while

 

In the second verse, Mitski recalls the way she can be pulled from a regular day into a mental trap she cannot find her way out of. All of a sudden, she has gone from living her life normally to being stuck in a funk she cannot find her way out of.

 

[Pre-chorus]

When I saw the girl looked just like me, I thought

Must be lonely loving someone

Trying to find their way out of a maze

Oh I know

Where I’d be stuck a while

 

Mitki sees more than just physical similarities with this girl, she assumes she must be similar to her in other ways too. She adds that her past lover must be having a hard time loving the girl because she is so trapped in her mind, as Mitski described herself being in the verse above. Mitski made the decision or rather made herself too unavailable to love because she was trapped in the maze, whereas this girl hasn’t, and she ponders the consequences of that. 

 

[Chorus]

I haven’t given you what you need

You wanted me but couldn’t reach me

So you went into your memory

Relived all the ways you still want me

I haven’t given you what you need

You wanted me but couldn’t reach me

I’m sorry it should’ve been me

I’m sorry it should’ve been me

(Mitski)

Mitski ends the song with the same chorus as before, with a feeling of guilt and an outward apology, knowing that the other wanted her so badly, and despite wanting to be there, she wasn’t able to. 

 

I really, really, like this song. It is very upbeat and I am such a fan of the way Mitski pairs somber songs with a fast tempo and major sound. I also really like how I think it fits with the subject, reflecting the strangely serene feeling she has. The subject is one that I haven’t ever encountered in a song before, and I also really appreciate that. The comparisons between her in the girl in the second verse and pre-chorus also really draw me in. The lyrics in the chorus are simple, but I still really like them for the reasons provided above. So overall, really enjoy this song, love the meaning, and think she really hit a home run with the contrast of dullness and brightness.

Source:

Mitski. “Mitski – Should’ve Been Me Lyrics.” AZLyrics, https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/mitski/shouldvebeenme.html. Accessed 1 March 2022.