I Love You, I'm Sorry - Gracie Abrams
- Daniella Rojas
- Jul 16
- 5 min read
“I Love You, I'm Sorry” is the fourth song on Gracie Abrams's The Secret of Us album. It's about feeling sorry about loving someone who doesn't love you back. You thought they loved you because of the way you guys connected, but it wasn't. It is also a parallel to "I miss you, I'm sorry," which came before "I Love You, I'm Sorry."
The first verse of “I Love You, I’m Sorry” sets us in the present while reflecting on the past. “Two Augusts ago, I told the truth, oh, but you didn't like it, you went home.” You told this person how you felt about them, but they didn't reciprocate the same feelings. “You're in your Benz, I'm by the gate.” Now, you’re seeing this person leaving, staring at their car driving away from you. “Now you go alone, charm all the people you train for, you mean well, but aim low. And I'll make it known like I'm getting paid.” Both of you went down separate ways, seeing how this person allures others like they usually do, but there's something off. The usual charm seems not to be there. You’ll ‘haunt’ them down, as if it were your job, in what comes next since they left you heartbroken standing on the shore after confessing your love.
“Two summers from now, we'll have been talking, but not all that often; we're cool now.” You are thinking now, within the present, about what will occur two years from now. The two of you will have made amends for what went wrong and will have moved on by then. There will be casual talking every now and then, but things will never be the same as before. “I'll be on a boat, you're on a plane going somewhere, same.” Although years have passed, you still wonder where your lost love might be. Maybe they're traveling to the other side of Earth, while you're heading to the other side of the ocean, like being so close yet so far. “And I'll have a drink, wistfully lean out my window, and watch the sun set on the lake. I might not feel real, but it's okay.” Seeing the sun set at the lake, yet not feeling real, is a form of paradox, expressing how you still feel a void, despite time having passed. The feeling of not feeling real is described in an abstract way, as detaching oneself from nature, where one feels like they're just existing, not living. You can't seem to move on entirely from what happened a couple of years ago, but you’ll manage your feelings; not today, but someday it’ll eventually get better.
”That's just the way life goes. I like to slam doors closed.” You can’t do much about it now. Life goes on, and some things eventually come to an end. Slamming doors closed is a metaphor for breaking up relationships, like a habit you seem to do often. “Trust me, I know it's always about me. I love you, and I'm sorry.” You blame yourself for why things ended. It was ‘your fault’ to be in love with this person and feel sorry for loving them. “'Cause that's just the way life goes. I push my luck, it shows,” pushing your luck is giving your everything, hoping to make things work out. “Thankful you don't send someone to kill me. I love you, I'm sorry.” You're grateful that this person didn't send someone to haunt you; you thought you were getting punished by them for how things ended, but thankfully, it didn't happen.
The bridge of this song, in particular, you can feel it in you. The way Abrams projected it is outstanding! (If you’re familiar with the song, you know what I mean) “You were the best, but you were the worst. As sick as it sounds, I loved you first.” Abrams employs antithesis to illustrate how thinking of someone who was your best and worst is relevant to their positive and negative characteristics. Sounding sick to love someone first is an exaggerated expression, as if you weren't supposed to love this person, but you do. “I was a dick, it is what it is. A habit to kick, the age-old curse.” When you have profound feelings for someone, you have a tendency to treat them unfairly. This habit feels like a curse you can't seem to shake. “I tend to laugh whenever I'm sad. I stare at the crash, it actually works.” Laughing when feeling down is your defense mechanism; some people may think it's odd or bizarre to laugh at an unfortunate event, but you can't help yourself. Looking at the crash is linked to reflecting on everything that went wrong. As if it brings you peace or relieves your pain, realizing what went wrong can be a source of comfort. “Making amends, this shit never ends. I'm wrong again, wrong again.” The amends you make, the changes you render to yourself within this recently ended relationship, appear not to work, as if it were a repetition of your previous partner. An ongoing cycle of never-ending pain that does not seem to be fading away anytime soon. You believe something is wrong with your partner selections, wondering if you’ll ever find the right one.
“The way life goes, joyriding down our road, lay on the horn to prove that it haunts me.” In my mind, I envisioned the last goodbye, two Augusts ago, when his Benz left your gate, and the last thing you heard was the last signal. But the horn still haunts you every time you hear it. You're laying on the horn in the stolen Benz, riding down the road that was once both of yours, pressing it for longer than usual to prove to this person that the horn still owns the feelings you felt at the time. “The way life goes, I wanna speak in code.” Speaking in code is a way of conveying a secret language, in a way that only the two of you could understand. It was something that would’ve made both of you closer. (It also connects with the title of the album!) “Hope that I don't, won't make it about me. I love you, I'm sorry.” You don't want to make things about yourself, a tendency that often arises from taking things too personally, which always ends up with a selfish feeling you want to avoid. This habit haunts; you don't want to make this about you, as you often do, through self-punishment; you're trying to change your old habits and avoid being selfish.
“I love you, I'm sorry”
Abrams, Gracie. "I Love You, I'm Sorry." The Secret of Us. Interscope Records, 2024. Apple Music, https://music.apple.com/us/album/i-love-you-im-sorry/1743054543?i=1743054747