‘Not Good Enough’ from Joy Williams’ new album ‘VENUS’ is your all or nothing love song. With heavy beats, slick production and soaring, desperate vocals, the track tells a story of a fight for love amidst all the messiness and raw emotions that only a long-term relationship can foster. What makes this song unique, is that it is the only song on the album where the protagonist paints herself as the heartbreaker; the bad guy; the person who ‘broke’ a relationship.
“Did I set it on fire/ And burn it all up?
The track continues with this idea of perfection and it’s complete impossibility, which the entire album wrestles with throughout. From the sweet yet heartbreakingly honesty of ‘You Loved Me’ to the fierce and uncompromising ‘Woman (Oh Mama)’.
Lyrically, ‘Not Good Enough’ has a push/pull dynamic. On the one hand, it feels as if the protagonist is trying to provoke a reaction in her lover;
“Go on look me in the eye/ I’m all out of things to hide/ Go on, reach into the dark/ Go on, reach into the dark.”
Whilst at the same time there is also a childlike pull from the protagonist for answers, and above all love;
“Could you look right at my wrong? Let the past be dead and gone?/ Am I asking too much?/ Are you all out of love?”
‘Not Good Enough’ – written by Joy Williams and Paul Moak
produced by Matt Morris, Daniel James and Charlie Peacock
mixed by Mike “Spike” Stent & mastered by Ted Jensen
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