When you think of electronic or hyper-pop, you may not think of deep, relatable songs. Yet, for Tiffany Day’s newest album, HALO, that’s all it was for me. Not only that, but this 13-track project was a no-skip album for me, a feat that is honestly rare for me. All her songs seem distinctly different from me, yet they all give Tiffany Day. Her music is so unique and individual to me that whenever she comes on, I can recognize if it is her album before she even gets on the mic. The mixing of her music, her upbeat instrumentals, and fun yet real lyrics just add so much respect and likeability to her music to me. I’ve had my run of electronic pop music before, but honestly haven’t listened much lately. But when I heard Tiffany for the first time, it felt like a breath of fresh air and enlightened something in me that felt so heavenly and really ignited my electronic/hyper-pop phase again for the better. So although I love all the tracks on this album, can repeatedly play them forever, I am going to go into depth of my Top 5 songs from this project and why I love them so much.
5. IT’S NOT LIKE THAT ANYMORE: This song really captures how Sophomore year of college has felt for me. In all honesty, my mental health has been in the gutter all year (or at least since October) and nothing seems to be helping or leading me to get better. The constant questioning if things will work out or if I will ever be happy or if any of the relationships in my life are real or a facade have clouded my mind for over 6 months now and this song really just puts those thoughts into song form and hits home extra hard. Tiffany really captures that lonely feeling that you can feel even if there are people in your life. The feeling that your place in other people’s lives is replaceable and not meaningful. What really hit me was the lyric where she asks “would anyone notice if I disappeared?” because even if you aren’t thinking from a life or death point of view, if you comepletely went off the grid and went no contact with people, would people even notice or care? That’s something I’ve struggled with a lot this past year and I’m honestly not happy with the answer I decided for myself but at least this song validates that for me and makes me feel seen with that struggle.
4. EVERYTHING I’VE EVER WANTED: Another perfect song that describes my Sophomore year experience. Can you tell this album came to me at the most perfect timing? It’s probably why this album means so much to me. This song describes the most struggling part of this year: being unhappy despite living through everything I planned for and wanted for myself. I’m taking 6 classes this semester so I can do lighter classes in the future, yet I have never struggled so hard academically despite only adding one class to my work load. I’m on the E-Board of my radio station where we are constantly working with artists and venues to promote their work and go to concerts for free, yet I feel limited because I feel like I have no future in music because of my major. And lastly, I am the President of the club that was my first true home on campus and where I met my closest college friends, yet this role has brought me so much stress, burden and sadness from all I have to do and although my love for this club has not faded, my confidence in myself in holding such a large position has crashed down as I leave this year feeling like I failed. This song really captures what it feels like to feel unhappy despite doing the things you thought would bring joy. Her continuous tangent about her feelings and how they bring so much confusion, self-consiousness and anxiety really show what it’s like when your thoughts wander and your uncertainty takes over. This is a calm crashout, one that may not be obvious but hits harder. A crashout behind the scenes, one that hits you the most. I’ve been going through it and so did she in this song. It truly questions why it feels like something is missing despite being in a position that should be making you feel fulfilled.
3. PRETTY4U: I am a lovergirl at heart, and it’s for the worst. I constantly compare myself to others especially when it comes to appearance, and it’s so bad when I have a crush. Because I don’t like how I look, when I get a crush, all I can think of is how much I want to change to be someone they are attracted to because I can’t fathom the idea of someone being attracted to the version of myself that I am now. That’s what this song means to me. That will to give it your all to change yourself for someone, to be “pretty” for someone else. Not for yourself, but for validation of others. Even if it isn’t for a crush per say, but just for others to just find you pretty, giving it your all for that validation, even if it’s driven by bad motivations, it would make the way you feel about yourself better because how others perceive you is now better. Although it’s bad and I know I shouldn’t think that way, it is still lowkey motivation to improve myself, despite the song pointing out the flaws in that thought process.
2. SAME LA: Another shoutout to my college experience, this song hits in a whole different way. Not one I take too much to heart, but just a niche experience that can sometimes bother me. Not in the grand scheme of things, just when it comes up. Her lyric, “I realized the other day, we don’t live in the same LA” really points out how when people grow up from different backgrounds, you can really tell sometimes in your mannerisms and how you approach different things. Typically when people grow up comfortable or rich and when others don’t, there is a subconscious difference in behavior and approaches to life. I felt this a lot during high school and it only got worse going to college, especially at my university. In high school, a lot of my peers would grow up in these huge houses and just casually wear designer clothes or eat out at restaurants where the bill went up to nearly $1000, and although I grew up more comfortable than most, we were never that nearly as wealthy. I wouldn’t even say I grew up anywhere near wealthy, my family just had us experience more opportunities by clearing their savings at any chance they had. And although I don’t think teenagers need or even should have access to such luxurious things in their life, being surrounded by it for the past 6 years of my life can get tiring and make you feel unworthy and left out. In college, that got worse because now you get mixed in with people who’s parents are fully covering their education and don’t have to worry about making loan payments or how much debt you’ll be in post-grad. I’ve met people who drive Rolls-Royce’s, who have their parent’s credit card on hand with no budget, and who get bought every variation of some new overpriced sweatsuit, and it just reinforces time and time again how I am not in the same tax bracket as a lot of my peers. That one line really made the song for me and really put into words how those little exchanges I have with people more well off than me make me feel put back financially and less than, even if they aren’t intentionally trying to exclude me. We can’t help our upbringing and although it doesn’t intentionally divide us, it always will in the way we subconsciously live life based on how we were brought up.
- AMERICAN GIRL: Confidence seems to be a big trend in how I feel about myself through these songs and this song is no different. The whole concept of perception and how I feel about myself is what I really was touched by in this song. The uncertainty I have in myself and the identity I have built in myself, and how I come off as confident when that’s the furthest thing from true, and how I constantly overthink every action I do or anything about myself. However, unlike most songs where I resonate with one thing and stick with it, this song proposes a relatable solution – wanting to be that picture perfect “American Girl”. Although I am half white, I do not get that privilege at all. Not that it’s something to yearn for, but growing being told to “go back to my country” or a “border hopper” despite not even being hispanic, or being blamed for COVID-19 really forces you to remember you will always be different. You are not normal because you are not white. Or even in a non-racial context – my weight. I can’t even count the amount of things that have been said about it or my appearance, especially from those closest to me like most commonly my mother, so just yearning for that picture perfect girl to be is something that does stay “all up in my head” because although I don’t look like it yet, there’s a chance I can be and live that perfect happy life if I do become that version of myself. But Tiffany does also point out the big cause in why we have these thoughts and of course it’s insecurity which seems to be following me around all these tracks.
Although the meanings behind these songs and lyrics have hit me in a deep and depressing way, she managed to make her album upbeat, catchy and fun so those deep thoughts don’t make you emotional but just be able to embrace them enjoyably. I may feel the relability to the song lyrics, but I do so while bopping my head and dancing stupidly but freely. That fresh breath of air I mentioned in the beginning is what makes her music so loveable. While you feel all these things through her music, you for some reason feel a sense of hope through them and that things will be okay, even if you don’t know how. This album couldn’t have come at a more perfect time for me and couldn’t have been more beautifully put together. I know she’s now more up and coming but I cannot wait for the day she becomes huge and people fully grasp how amazing of an artist she truly is.