“Dominic’s Interlude” repeats the phrase “Talk to your man, tell him he’s got bad news coming.” It transitions the album and sets the tone for “I HATE EVERYBODY”.
“I HATE EVERYBODY” is a song that every young person can relate to at some point. It’s that late-night feeling of wanting someone’s company but not wanting to be around people. When you just want to feel loved ut not have any emotional commitment to somebody. “If I could make you love me, maybe you could make me love me, and if I can’t make you love me, then I’ll just hate everybody.” There’s a theme to this entire album. Each song flows into the next and almost a different take on each emotion. “I HATE EVERYBODY” is just the tip of the iceberg. We get the next part of the story in the song “3am”.
“3am”, is at face value, about phone sex. But it’s actually way deeper than that. It’s about not wanting to feel lonely. “3am” is about wanting to feel loved. After being around people all day, even if they were just bodies, you suddenly feel lonely. You want to feel appreciated and like you matter to someone. “I really need a mirror that’ll come along and tell me that I’m fine, I do it every time.” It emulates that feeling of wanting to be loved even if it’s just for a night.
“Without Me” is about helping someone through addiction and having them take advantage of all that you’ve done for them and how it feels to know that you put all of your energy into them while they did nothing for you. “I’d catch you if you fall and if they laugh then fuck them all”. It takes you through the emotions of helping someone from “taking [their] demons and making them [yours]” to not knowing why you decided to help them.
“Finally//beautiful stranger” is the first love song that is full of guitar and heartfelt lyrics. “Beautiful stranger here you are, in my arms, and I think that it’s finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, safe for me to fall.” This is a drastic difference from the previous song. Even going as far as to point out how much nicer and purer this relationship is by saying “Used to think loving meant a painful chase, but now you’re right here now and I think you’ll stay.”
After “Finally//beautiful strange” we have “Alanis’ Interlude that helps transition us into “killing boys”.
“Killing boys”, is sandwiched between two interludes which makes it harder to pay attention to but with lyrics like “Told me to pick my battles and be pickin’ ‘em wise, but I wanna pick ‘em all and I don’t wanna decide,” it doesn’t deserve to be overlooked. It should be a stand-alone song because it describes a manic episode. That’s why it’s between two interludes, “Alanis’s Interlude” and “SUGA’s Interlude”.
“SUGA’s Interlude” transitions seamlessly into “More”.
“More” is written about Ashley’s struggles with infertility. If you don’t know about her background you would not immediately guess that this song is about miscarriages and what it’s like to go through it. Although the miscarriages occurred years ago, she is finally able to work through them with this song. She has finally forced herself to slow down and write about topics that she kept locked away. With lyrics like “Wooden floors and little feet” anyone that does not know about Ashley’s struggle with infertility is able to understand what the song is about.
“Still Learning” is the second to last song on “Manic”. It talks about how she is still learning how to live life in the spotlight. She talks about how she loves her life and what she does but she is struggling with self-care. “Nobody around me knows who I am, what I’m on, who I’ve hurt, and where they’ve gone.” She talks about how she is admitting her wrongs and is on the journey of trying to make things right.
“929” is my favorite song on Manic. It is the perfect summary of the entire album and flows so beautifully into “Ashley”. It ties the album together and transitions back into the first song, “Ashley”, for those of us who listen to albums on loop until we can sing them in their entirety. This song mentions how she quit smoking, being used by her idols, and how much her fans mean to her. My favorite lyrics are, “I remember this girl with pink hair in Detroit, well she told me, she said, ‘Ashley you better promise that you won’t die, because we need you,’ and I think that she lied. She goes on to say that she can remember every fan she’s ever met but can’t name the people she’s slept with. It goes to show that she threw herself into her career and fan base but didn’t focus on self-care until now. She packs this song so full of emotion that you need to listen to is a couple of times in order to get what it’s about. Each time you listen to this song and the album as a whole, you unpack something else.