The Weeknd
Can't Feel My Face
I Can't Feel My Face was released by The Weeknd in 2015. When you listen to the song, your first thought would be it's a love song, but the actual lyrical meaning is something else. Can't feel my face is the literal description of what happens when you do too much cocaine. The artist metaphorically described his relationship with this drug as if it was a woman. It's more like the confessions of a drug addict than a love song. "Can't Feel My Face's" first verse begins on a dark note: "And I know she'll be the death of me, at least we'll both be numb." The song seems to be about a woman who threatens to hurt the narrator however it is a song veiled in drug addiction. However, he reasons even if she does kill him, they'll feel nothing together--him because he'll be dead and her because, apparently, she's heartless. Abel Tesfaye sings, "And she'll always get the best of me, the worst is yet to come." Even if he wants to beat her at her own game or to escape, he'll never succeed; bad things are practically fated to happen. "But," he sings, "at least we'll both be beautiful and stay forever young / This I know, (yeah) this I know." Youth and beauty are enviable things; while he's with her he feels these things. At times, she makes him feel good and like he can last forever in a wonderful, golden world. In the pre-chorus, The Weeknd sings that his female friend told him to not "worry about it" and to "worry no more." She wants him to relax and give his worries to her--to trust her that she'll take care of him despite how many times she's hurt him. Obviously, this relationship is anything but healthy. What's even more troublesome is that he then sings, "We both knew we can't go without it." It's almost as if he's addicted to this relationship and partially because "[s]he told me, 'You'll never be in love.'" If he leaves this woman/drug, he's afraid he'll never truly be happy and that as good as he feels with her is the best he can feel. And the chorus is where the disguise melts away. The "woman" is not a woman after all; she's actually a metaphor for an addictive drug. Because the narrator is using drugs, he's "numb"; "the worst is yet to come" because addiction gets stronger; when he's high, he'll feel "beautiful" and "forever young"; and the drugs' primary job is to keep him from worrying. Of course, because he's addicted, he feels like he "can't go without it." What tips the listener off (if he/she hasn't found out by now) is the song's title and first line of the chorus: "I can't feel my face when I'm with you." Being high apparently keeps him from physically being able to feel his face. Not only does it impair his sense of feel, but it also removes from him part of his humanity--his face through which he and the world view each other. Of course, the habit is difficult to escape, and The Weeknd sings, "But I love it, but I love it," unable and not wanting to break with his "lover." Interestingly, while the "woman" tells the narrator he'll "never be in love," he still loves this drug. Perhaps that's the struggle for The Weeknd's narrator. He personifies his drugs as a woman because he knows it (like a jealous and hurtful lover) is what keeps him from really experiencing emotional fulfillment and enrichment in life.