Ruth B.’s song, “First Time“, puts the listener in an upbeat mood as the drums play in quick rhythm, with a soft instrumental melody intertwined with the drums. The song dives into the essence of struggling to admit to your identity when your identity is based on the person you are in a relationship with, keeping a soft tone. This soft tone forces the listener to contemplate the lyrics, as they need to listen to every word as they are slowly sung. Listening to every word, allows the reader to come to terms with the reality of how building your identity is a long and complicated process. Through this process, we need to rediscover our true selves, as she articulates through her lyrics, that she was hiding herself in her previous relationship. In this light, her breakup liberates her into her true identity.
In Ruth B.’s liberation, she finds comfort in being single. She finds comfort because by being her true self, she is in control of her own actions and is not pretending to be someone who she does not truly know. Ruth B. freeing is complimented with fast paced rhythms to express her being released from the tension built up inside and how when she releases herself from that burden, she needs to think deeply about how being overwhelmed was impacting her. To escape, she forces herself to do so as quickly as possible.
The song ends with a high note and a sudden calmness to show Ruth finally healing from being overwhelmed and being at peace with her journey of rediscovering her real self. Once the singing concludes, the piano plays on one note to articulate that Ruth’s identity is one identity, and she is no longer sifting through her fake identity and her true identity.