When you fall in love in High School you swear to yourself and the entire world around you that this is the ultimate and only love that has ever and will ever exist in your life. You carry on with this love discovering everything about a whole new world that you somehow were unable to see until that relationship came into existence. Movies are suddenly seen differently, books are read with the love of your life in mind and the subtleties within their writings become magnified as suddenly every single detail matters. Ellie Goulding’s freshly released tune Hanging On works the same angle as the beginning plays like cupid himself picking the harp in a Babylonian garden where we encounter the beginnings of a forbidden love . Ellie’s dreamy vocals that we have come to adore instantly mesmerize us as she nails every note in proper pitch and tone. The drums then come blazing in like an epic flash of an entire relationship from start to fiery finish between a James Dean-esque like character and the soft featured blond beauty herself. Walks in the garden, running on a beach, shit being thrown around and broken, tears, laughter, beautiful gazes and stares, and then, a black and white shot of both walking away with pain and sorrow in their eyes all in that same instant flash. The song quickly changes its pace as Ellie sings about pain and suffering while giving you those exact emotions with every vocal and ad lib placed perfectly throughout. It becomes evident that as powerful as this love is she understands that it just can’t be.
I just can’t keep hanging on”
And then, the dubstep chimes in as the perfect undertone for the antagonists soundtrack. Tinie plays the role of the villain to perfection within his lyric content. He goes from the “cool guy”, to the victim, a tough guy, and then a victim again, attempting to fire up any emotions within Ellie in order to keep her engaged and bouncing back the way most destructive relationships do. Like the score of a film, his vocals ride right over the synths and drums as dramatic as the instrumentation giving us his side of the story, his plea, his screams and yells, and finally admitting his heartbreak.
Ellie continues on softly with her decision as the piano and her vocals play the same lifeless ballad in sync until the end.
Sometimes Hanging On to a love that brings you more pain than laughter, more tears than smiles, and more heartbreak than excitement is just not worth holding onto.
Ellie Goulding – Hanging On feat. Tinie Tempah
