Hearts A Mess Lyrics

Jack you totally got it. Exactly from my first listen is what I interpreted it to be as well. I just got totally screwed by my man (no longer) and a friend of mine sent this song to me for a listen as I wallow in my self pity. We'd been engaged, long distanced, back and forth, up and down, roller coaster craziness for the last year and a half. Then...on my way to pretty much move to where he was he calls to tell me he took a chick home from a drunken bowling alley night! Needless to say...lame. I've been puttin out goodness for this troublesome soul since the get go. Bond was stronger than ever...but he held onto his heart like a vice. He's much happier, as he told me a few days ago, being single. Screwing chicks from bowling alleys I guess. Cheers all.

For me and maybe for others, when my heart is "a mess" I don't need another person sitting on the sidelines with their hidden motivations to be with me, I need a friend only.It is, most of the time, obvious when a person is hovering and waiting for a broken heart to heal so they can vainly claim to the one they "helped", if they wanted true love they would accept their love next.If the person doesn't respond back with acceptance they must be being jaded and chast. No, I dont agree. I agree with the comment above, "We all THINK that being burned makes us frigid, but we all go like moths to the flame when the flame arrives again." Anyone with experience in love should learn when someones heart broken and they are emotionally unavailable to return the love you feel for them, move on without the guilt trip. How is that love when it looks and feels and sounds so selfish to the one that thought they had a friend and then is left without even that?

i love that you, & you know who you are, are so anal-ytical that you've completely overlooked the fact that this is just a song written by a very talented songwriter, sometimes a banana is just.........a banana, thanks for playing :)

I hate to say it, folks, but when someone who has been burned says he won't let himself/herself be burned again, it simply means there isn't enough attraction there--not enough of the spark that will make that same person leap in to the arms of the very next one that comes along carrying that mesmerizing flame. We all THINK that being burned makes us frigid, but we all go like moths to the flame when the flame arrives again. If it's just not there, that's when all the excuses and neuroses surface.

This reminds me of my last relationship. He was with her for 8 years and engaged, then se left him. But I have always liked/ loved him. So there we were, and this amazing guy i once knew was in pieces and he really liked me too, but was to afraid to give it a go. We ended up in a 2 year hurricane relationship. I dont think out boat ever left the harbour, he just could not snap out of his own pain and issues. so now i would say to him:

Your heart’s a mess
You won’t admit to it
It makes no sense
But I’m desperate to connect
And you, you can’t live like this

So i am moving on.

why are you so literal in your interpretation?

if instead of

'You won’t get hurt if you stay chaste'

he said something like

'You won't get burnt if you don't play with fire'

would you go thinking this song is about pyromaniacs?

it's a figure of speech, to say 'no pain, no gain'. but really when you meet someone that twisted and self involved with their own pain, they really aren't worth your love if you've tried over and over to connect with them.

either you are not the one who will get through to her, or it's something she must learn on her own.

I disagree with the negative comments about the song being about sex and sounding acrid at the end. The guy just wants to love someone, share his love; so he will move on if she is too afraid to love him back. simple.

I have been in a relationship for a year with my boyfriend and I have done so much for him and he still hasn't opened up to me... He was in a 4 1/2 year relationship in the past and he has his walls up so high that he will not say I love you because he believes it's just a word and has no meaning. Gotye got this song down and it is how I'm feeling. I'm holding on by a thread but if he can't open up it won't be much longer til it's over.... Hearts a Mess=Love to be loved in return<3

In response to the last part of the song. what I think it means with "But I wont waste my love" Being that its put together with the rest of the verse

"Love ain’t safe
You won’t get hurt if you stay chaste
So you can wait
But I won't waste my love"

I think he means that even though that person can "stay chast" and "wait" he "wont waste his love" on...somebody other than the person he loves.

The last guy got it right, almost. I believe that, as "acrid" as you may think it, this song is sung by a man who has proverbially beaten himself against the rocks, trying to get through to this woman that he obviously loves so much.
He's shown her soooo much patience, and wasted a LOT of his own time, and she's simply refusing to cross the threshold for fear of any sting.
She's gone and gotten herself burned by enough clowns that she's steeled herself closed. This is VERY frustrating to him, but he remains patient, as he calmly deals with her neuroticism. He wants to help her, he wants to love her and be loved. (I know, duh.)
He's not giving up on her yet, but he's letting her know that he's getting tired of the crap, and he's holding out just a LITTLE bit longer.
But he doesn't want to waste himself away waiting for her to, at long last, once life has finally passed them both by, finally step out at the end.

He's appealing to her to either open up to him soon or he's gotta move on.

That is not cold, that is self preservation.
If he finally does that, it's because he was wasting his love on her, if she couldn't appreciate his love enough to take the risk and potentially love him back.

I've spent a lot of time in this very place where this character singing the song sits.
Gotye nailed it.
Jack

Just to add to the other comments here about the last line of the song, I'd like to suggest that it only appears heartless and out of place because it's been misinterpreted.

When it says "I won't waste my love" I think what it's saying is "I won't waste my love by not using it, by not sharing and offering it, by not putting it out there and taking risks with it." The person with the messed heart is wasting their love because they're holding it back, because they're afraid of being hurt.

At least this seems to me to be the most obvious meaning, when you look at the last few lines (and the message of the whole song) together:

Love ain’t safe
You won’t get hurt if you stay chaste
So you can wait
But I won't waste my love

I've read the few reviews concerning the last lines of the song. The consensus seems to be that the words are heartless and out of place with the beauty of the rest of the song. However, as the girl with the messed up heart, I've learned that I inflicted pain when I tried to protect myself from pain. Sometimes, in retrospect, I've realized that these were wonderful men have left my life with a bit of my "mess" as their own. I think he is saying that he can only hurt, risk, so much in the quest to help the other heal. I think it fits with the song's story.

Wow perfect lyrics. I have feelings for my best friend who just recently ended a relationship of few years with his ex. He thought she was the one. I thought I was getting through his hurt and finding my place in his heart but it seems like his HEART IS A MESS... I don't know if waiting is an option, what if after a year I'm still just a friend?! Can I move on without fully trying? Let me occupy ur mind as u do mine...

Love ain’t safe
You won’t get hurt if you stay chaste
So you can wait
But I don’t wanna waste my love

It is a beautiful song but the part where he says, "But I don't wanna waste my love" is a bit acrid for me. what does he imply? If you don't give into my lust for your voluptuous body, well then, I'll look for someone who does. This sounds like being promiscuous should be celebrated and staying pure till marriage is the new vice.

If the song would have ended with something like, "and I'll wait right here with you" it would have been exquisite. Love is not about satiating carnal desire, it is being passionate, devout, ardent to your lover. Waiting, yearning, smoldering in flames of love yet being within the bounds.

Am I the only one that thinks this song has a double sense talking about sex?
Sorry it seems so superficial...
I admit the last words of this song are so sad, I hesitated in listening to it ever again...
Great artist!