Words by: Lucy Fudge
Following three tumultuous years of major label disagreements and being forced back to the drawing board, English pop musician Dylan is back with her latest single, ‘to love and to lose’.
The song begins with bright synthesisers and a steady drumline mimicking the slightly too-fast heartbeat of someone stuck and spiralling in their head. The lyrics, “You’re in me while I’m in my head” cut straight to the heart of the song.
As she ruminates through the verse and pre-chorus, the instrumental builds before returning to its steady rhythm at the start of the chorus. The lyricism in the chorus is simple but honest, with Dylan repeating, “I don’t think love was made for me / I think maybe I’m made to love / And lose it / I lose it”, with the double entendre at the end being echoed by drums seeming to lose control after remaining steady through the song.
Continuing with brutal honesty and vulnerability in the second verse, statements such as, “Stood in the bathroom tearing off all my skin / I faked it over and over again” perfectly capture the combination of self-loathing and doubt rooted in constantly questioning your capacity for love.
Crescendoing through the chorus again, the bridge hits with full force. As Dylan appears overwhelmed by a heartbreaking realisation that she may never be enough, layers of vocals fight for attention and she sings, “I wanted you, you wanted more / And now I feel nothing at all”. Returning one more time to the steady beat of the drums and bright synths, the energy shifts in the final chorus with an air of quiet resignation and radical acceptance as the instruments stop and Dylan’s voice reverberates out.
After facing obstacle after obstacle to get this song out there, ‘to love and to lose’ has all the markers of someone who has faced many battles and learnt to embrace the scars she was left with. While still maintaining elements of her earlier songwriting, it is clear that Dylan has spent time leaning into her edgier side, pushing the parts of herself which she deems broken and messy into the light and creating a highly relatable track about heartbreak, healing, and acceptance.
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