So this is how we are going to kick it all off: This is the best Rum & Coke song to date. Not the best song in the world, just putting that out there so you don't get a strong sense of pretension from such a bold statement, but this is the best Rum & Coke song to date. And I know what you're thinking, die hard Rum & Coke addict who is searching for my "@" right now. I know that you think the smooth lyrics on Failed Escape can't be topped or the intensity of Q&A is one that will never be matched, truly the untouchable MC Hammer was referring to, but you're all wrong. It's clear that everyone ran in here at the sight of an Aikya Balan feature and expected for DEVOURED pt. 2, but what we got here is lyrically and musically, so. much. more.

Rum & Coke's newest single inhabits several headspaces, all of them liminal. The song starts off the back off of the riveting riff of a synth and Coke's voice rattles into play. It sits itself at the scared, desperate place in an argument between 2 lovers where both parties are saying things they will come to regret in minutes. She sings her partners words in a soft manner, showing the vulnerability in not only repeating his obviously hurtful words, but in the confusion of what he says, his vocabulary consisting of words like "reverie" and "indigenous". And in a sense the vulnerability doesn't last for long, Coke goes on to call him out for his extensive but useless vocabulary saying things like "Those syllables keep you walled in" because she makes it out that he's only using the big words to cover up how he really feels. The Chinese synths that accompany, back up her argument, giving her the sort of high tension that carries the frustration for her soft voice. Rum comes in the hook with a part that is just right for her, she poses as the role of the woman who takes full dominance and yells with the bass in her voice that usually lies in a man. Unlike Coke who used his words against him, Rum creates an obvious juxtaposition with her presence, a pulsing bass that shakes the song up as she ignores grammar rules and cuts her words short, highlighting how she feels like she's being mocked by his big words. She comes into the track like a wrecking ball with reasonable demands but once she gets to the end of the hook, it dawns on you that this is the most vulnerable part of the whole song. She isn't yelling as a way to enforce control, she's yelling so that what she begs can be heard because morons yell and others use actual words, sometimes bigger ones, to express themselves. Am I the only one who thinks that maybe Rum & Coke aren't begging for him to be real, that maybe there's a possibility he really is expressing himself?

Songs can be interpreted in many ways, most writers don't even settle for one theme in their own work. On the surface this is either literally or figuratively a song about a women being fed up with her lover using big, "$5 words" to mask what he truly feels. But beneath it all there could lie a hidden meaning. It comes into play when Rum says the most important lines of the whole song. "Just don't burn your tongue/Cause you be condescending/With yo' $5 words" She says this as a threat that he'll regret what he's saying because his unnecessary words hurt and he just might lose her over it. But in the verses, it's clear by what Coke has claimed he's said, that he wants her gone. Suddenly the hook goes from "I don't want to, but I'll leave you and you'll regret it" to "I really will do what you're telling me to and leave and then you'll realize you've made a mistake. That's a big transformation.

The second verse only further deepens the perspective. Aikya Balan says her ritual 2 words, "In tongues.." and then fades out. What exactly does it mean to be "in tongues"? Coke seems to speaking in them but it's hard to tell what they are, especially since if it's a metaphor for not being understood (as previously used by Rum in thesong ONE), wouldn't the man and his "$5 words" be "in tongues" and not hers? Coke rolls into the verse and this time makes less of an effort to remember his 3+ syllable words and uses her own vocabulary, expressing how she feels in a calmer manner than in the hook. "That shit cuts me deep", she sings somberly. She continues, trying her best to repeat what he keeps telling her and ultimately deeming it as a lie. She then draws attention away from his argument and goes on to the pre-hook without addressing his actual claims. It's clear that he's not lying, but that she's not listening. Maybe those $5 Words that she is referring to isn't those words that no one uses but just the words that she doesn't want to hear. He's breaking up with her and telling her everything that's wrong with the relationship and she keeps insisting that he doesn't mean it and that he shouldn't "burn his tongue". After the second hook, Rum is thrown into a whirlwind of denial, where even the instrumental portrays messiness with a shuddering, stomping beat that seem to be closing her in. She keeps yelling things like "just let your words be free" but really, she's begging that since she's lying to herself he should play along and forget all he has to say. "It's better in tongues, I promise, it's better in tongues" Rum coos in desperation, declaring that it hurts less when you lie. With Better In Tongues set to be released any day now, it's clear to see why this is such a substantial lead single. Unlike Keep It Clean, Hotels, or Sentenced4Life, it tells a broad tale that reveals itself to be deeper than it seems, with instrumentation that only highlights the emotion. Though we don't have much information on the heavily delayed record, this song alone proves that big things are to be expected. I mean goddamn, they pulled out "Chinese Ambient Music" card. Who else can get away with that kind of thing?! We still don't forgive them for the deprivation but they deserve every pre-order possible.