Analyzing Songs - The perfect pair by Beabadoobee

I decided to analyze this poem through this form called TPCASTT. If you haven’t heard of it, I've added a picture on the right.

For me, I like to combine Paraphrasing and Connotating (P+C) because it’s quicker and easier. When I was analyzing this poem, I didn’t notice any significant shifts in the tense or attitude/tone, so I decided to skip it for now. However, If you did, then don’t hesitate to leave a comment down below! Without further ado, let’s start analyzing.

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Here's a picture of the analysis of the whole song. Feel free to zoom in to see all the details. Since the writing is small and hard to read, let's go over this together.

Let's start off with the beginning of the song.  When following the TPCASTT format, you'll see that we analyze the title first. For this song, I predicted that the title was going to be about two people who are perfect for each other. Now let's move on to the paraphrase step. I've made a nice table for the first verse.

line	analyzed
You ought to know that I think we’re one and the same	the author wants the other person to know that they are the same - both are alike in some way
I don't think we could help it	- they couldn't help/stop the fact that they were the same in some sort of way
We don't talk much Guess 'cause nothing has changed	- they don't talk much because nothing has changed since she or maybe both of the people found out that they were the same
And I’m not sure I like it And I’m so tired of fighting	- She doesn’t like the fact that they don’t talk much, and she’s tired of fighting the feeling of wanting to talk to the other person - this is because fighting = can also mean conflict, so she’s tired of being conflicted

Now, let's move on to the second verse of the song, the chorus, which is repeated once more at the end. I'll analyze a few of the lines from the chorus at the end as well, for a clearer understanding.

Line	analyzed
If I told you, you know how to Go and break my heart in two	- I’m assuming she’s talking about telling them her feelings (♥️) because this is a song about two people - if the other person knows how to break her heart, then they could be friends - so if we go back to the first two lines, they are alike because they like each other and they are friends, which could also be why they don’t talk much because it’s awkward…
‘Cause I would anyways We’d end up like always	- she would break his heart anyway - but why? - “Always” - awkward stage? Both knowing they like each other? Friendzoned/just friends again?
You know me, you better show me  That you could say it to my face	“If you know me that well, then you’d be able to show me by telling me you 🤍 me in front of my face.”
‘Cause you know we’re the same There’s worse things I can take	“You know we both 🤍 each other.” - there’s worse kinds of pain she could take?

Next, we have the third verse of the song. Let's jump right into the explanation this time.

line	analyzed
I know you hate it When there’s nothing to say I’m not quite sure we’d fix it Guess we’re so used to it	- she knows the other person hates when they are awkward but both of them are used to it - if they’re used to it => this has happened for a long time => and they’ve 🤍ed each other for a long time?
Wish I had known this From the beginning	“I wish I knew we were going to 🤍 each other when we first became friends.”
We find it hard to work out Why we have all this doubt	- They both don’t understand why they have doubt that the other person may not feel the same => even if they do…

At last, we've arrived at the last verse of the song, which is the repetition of the chorus from the second verse. I'll only re-analyze a few lines because I only realized the meanings at this point, not in the second verse. So, I've basically done this for stronger understanding, like I said before explaining the second verse.

line	analyzed
‘Cause I would anyways	- I think she would break their heart because maybe she would want to save her friendship - OR since “there's worse things she can take,” maybe she means that she would break his heart because there are worse things that she could be worrying about right now since this isn’t really worth all her time and energy, so she would break their heart / break up (?) because she has other things to do? I’m not sure if this is right
We’d end up like always	- Just friends again (I’m pretty sure) - situation of doubting each other, awkwardd

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We're almost done analyzing! We have just completed the steps of Paraphrasing, and Connotating. I decided to sort of blend them into one step, which is all those tables above. Next, we move on to Attitude/Tone.

For Attitude/Tone, I've concluded that the author is probably really tired of being at an awkward stage of doubt and conflicting emotions with the other person. It speaks many people's minds, making it such a good song combined with the voice and instrumentals.

 (I've decided to skip through the steps of Shifts, because I did;t notice any. Though if you saw any, make sure to comment it down below to speak your mind to me and other people!)

Let's examine the title again, as it's our next step. Now that we've analyzed the song, the title seems to match perfectly with what this song is about. It's about two people who would be "the perfect pair," if they just communicated and got through their doubts.

Finally, we are at our theme statement: When two people are friends and they start liking each other (romantically), things can get awkward and confusing. This song describes this awkward stage where both individuals kinda, sorta know that the other person likes them, but they have conflicted feelings about showing it because they have doubts.

The Beatopia album from Beabadoobee - the album
that "The perfect pair" is in.

And there we have it! We've analyzed "The perfect pair," from Beabadoobee, all in this one post. I know this was a lot to read, but this was really fun to make!

If you have any more ideas on this, feel free to let me know in the comments below! Stay tuned for more poetry and posts like this! What's a song you really like? Let me know in the comments!

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