Debuts so fully formed as Montclair, NJ-based artist Hit Like A Girl‘s, the recording project of Nicolle Maroulis, are rare. Even rarer are albums that explore the complexities of relationships in real and imagined senses as is played with throughout You Make Sense.
To celebrate the release of You Make Sense, we had Maroulis break it down for us track by track. Check it all out below and head to Hit Like A Girl’s Bandcamp page for more.
“It’s Always You” is about when I first moved back to New Jersey from Pennsylvania. I got a job at Guitar Center and there was this particular co-worker of mine who fascinated me with their passion for music and life in general. They made it clear that they were “emotionally unavailable,” and so I wrote this song about my feelings for them.
“I’ll Understand” is about a love interest who broke things off with me because they felt like I was a liar and no good to them. They wouldn’t talk to me every time I’ve seen them since, and made it clear that they hated me. I kept trying to make things right, but in the end I had to accept that they wanted nothing to do with me, and I realized they were better off without me anyway.
“You Gave Up” is basically about the same thing as track number 2. I felt like this girl had given up on me and on us, and that it was all my fault.
“Almond Eyes” is a love song to my most recent ex girlfriend. There’s only a certain amount of ways you can compliment brown eyes.
“If I Could Erase You” has a reference to my favorite movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I wrote it exactly a year after meeting the girl that most of the album is about.
“The Song I Hoped You’d Never Hear” starts off being about how I can’t seem to think about anything other than this girl, and how it’d be nice to find something else to write about other than her. It’s almost as if I had forgotten what my life was like before I met this person and I couldn’t get her out of my head.
“Let You Go” is my favorite song on the album. It’s kind of the closure the album needs as well as the closure I hope to find in letting this person go and moving on from it. I remember I had seen her once while I was with a mutual friend, and the anxiety of being around her stopped me from even being able to look her in the eye. That’s when I knew these feelings I had for her were starting to reach an unhealthy level and I needed to figure out a way to let the past be the past, despite all the things I wish I had gotten a chance to say to her.
“Ukulele Song” is again a love song to my most recent ex who ironically has broken up with me since, and there are lyrics that say, “I’m just grateful that you still don’t want to break up.” Life is just ironic in that kind of way I guess.
