Sienna Spiro has a crazy rasp and came fully out of nowhere. She sounds like she belongs in a private speakeasy, but aren’t we glad she isn’t underground? Let’s see what she’s all about and why the hell the cheapest ticket on StubHub is $300.
This Is My House
Her house is her body, her mind, her soul, and she refuses to give it up.
The first track opens with a classic piano and a sample from Nikki Giovanni’s “My House,” giving off this soulful Olivia Dean feel. Sienna describes the setting of her house. The metaphorical vision of “my house” represents her body, her mind, her soul. She will invite people in, but she will not give herself to them by going into “their house.” Saying “Lord, you can take me/ But you can’t take my house” instills this feeling of possession over the things that make her herself. She protects it and cares for it. She refuses to give it up. The song finishes off with a sting of electric guitar and classic synth almost a full minute before it’s over. That gives us time to sit with it, understand the meaning of her words, and prepare for the messages waiting in the rest of the album.
We’re Not In Love
Sex without love feels wrong to her, and she says it over and over.
The deep orchestra takes us through the truth here: the reality of sex without love. Knowing that someone is using you for physical things but has no attachment feels wrong to her. She says it over and over, in pain because it makes no sense. The lack of aftercare and effort. In the end she decides she will keep going back to him, but not close enough for it to hurt her feelings. The way it leaves off doesn’t seem honest, though.
Great Expectation
When he can’t give her the emotion she craves, she fantasizes and pours it into her singing.
We start this one with a fantasy: “In my head…” She imagines what she wants from him. She wants to feel something with him and is desperate for him to care for her, to make her feel something emotional. All he ever does is call on her when he needs something. The chorus erupts with the truth that she gets the emotion she craves from singing and putting all of it into her writing, saying “If happiness is just an illusion/ You are the best I ever had.” Kind of taking a knock at him whilst also telling him he is the best she’s got. She accepts that if he cannot fulfil her needs, all she needs to do is fantasize to get through the relationship. The next verse takes us back into what may be causing her to feel like this. Childhood? Abandonment? The bridge gives off this similarity to RAYE, not afraid to admit to tears and moving on. That big belt at the end of the bridge into the final chorus hits us like a truck. At the very last second, what sounds like a mic drop tells us she is done with her point, kind of a sign of giving up.
Die On This Hill
She knows people may think she’s crazy, but she’s aware of the problem and wants to keep trying.
A piano chord progression takes us up and down. She admits that he led her down the path again. She stayed, but she still gets nothing because his words mean nothing. She recognizes what she has done in the lines “I’ll take my pride, stand here for you/ No, I’m not blind, just seeing it through.” She is telling us that she will stand up and tell this story, although it’s embarrassing to exploit herself personally and admit how long she stayed. She stayed to see if she could stick it out and come out better on the other side, hoping the relationship blossoms. She recognizes that people may think she is crazy, but she is letting them know that she is aware of the problem and she wants to keep trying.
In the next verse she says “The way that someone leaves this world is all just levels.” This helps us understand her fear of abandonment. She knows the person will always leave her, but after so many times there is a kind of scale to how it happens. Some are easier to deal with than others. The power in the bridge lines “I know nothing could matter/ God, I wish something mattered” screams it out, praying and screaming that something is gonna give.
He’s Not My Baby, I’m His
He talks down to her, and she secretly likes it.
More despair and disappointment. A man does not show up for her, and this one is older. He leaves her on the hook and talks down to her. He makes her feel important sometimes: “And no one feels quite as seen as when a child gets chosen.” It should annoy her that he talks down to her and tells her she is too young to understand, but in every chorus she says “I like it when…” telling us that she secretly likes the disrespect.
Pure
She just wants to feel something again, no matter what type it is.
The track lives up to its name as soon as it starts, with the plucking sound of an acoustic guitar instead of that soulful piano. We’ve shifted gears, and now we are talking about the intentions behind her music. She used to do it for the genuine love of creation and artistic ability, but now she thinks her motives might be to sing for approval. “The applause.” She sees the good parts of herself in her sister but doesn’t see the bad, and that makes her jealous of her sister’s carefree spirit. She wishes she could stop overthinking. She feels out of body and out of her life. She admits that she has been pushing her friends away because of the way she feels about her life. She feels unrelatable and wonders what it’s all for if it all feels numb to her. Ending the song with the lines “Just wanna feel special/ I just wanna feel” is a cry for help. A beg and plea to the universe to let her get any feeling back, no matter what type it is.
The Visitor
She feels temporary to him, and a visitor eventually leaves.
The title track opens with strings and quickly goes back to the sad piano. She tells us that in this relationship they spend “rented time” together, meaning the time they are together is not special and does not feel like theirs, because she feels temporary to him. She feels like a “visitor” because eventually a visitor leaves. She expects them to forget about her, but she is desperate to feel loved and to feel that she belongs to someone. Whether or not people are telling the truth when they say they love her, she will never believe it. She will always be skeptical of genuineness.
Time, You & Me
She’s done feeling sorry for him and confident in her worth.
There’s a scandalous plucking sound that opens this one up. She’s painfully aware that this person is wasting time on her, telling them that they will never get back what they gave to her. The tone is resentful of him. She does not feel sorry for him and is turning the corner. It’s sassy and it’s confident in her worth.
You Stole The Show
It wasn’t good, but it’s all she had.
This one is more regretful. She said goodbye, and now he won’t acknowledge her. She seems disappointed in herself and how she let him get to her. Even though their relationship was terrible, she is desperate to be back in his arms. She knows it wasn’t good, but it’s all she had. It’s all defined by the line “I ask if you love me, and you just shrug your shoulders,” telling us that he did not care about her. He didn’t even care enough to explain what he was feeling.
Mono No Aware
Everything good and bad keeps going, and there’s something beautiful in that.
This closing track starts with a delicate bassline. The lyrics all point to her fear of abandonment and the inevitable depression that comes with an ending. She wonders about sadness and why it ever comes if everything bad is expected. All she knows is that in life it is necessary to find someone you care about. She is pointing out the cycle of life, all things good and bad, and how it all keeps going and going. She thinks there is something beautiful about the fact that “you don’t have to choose.” We have no choice in fate and what happens by chance.
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