Music Review: Tonic "If You Could Only See"

Tonic

If You Could Only See

Album: Lemon Parade

Year: 1997

              Emerson Hart tries to get people in his life to understand his girlfriend in the                        heartfelt “If You Could Only See.”

              A battling guitar opens the single, setting a hawkish  tone. The chorus opens the single. His friend remarked that he doesn’t know what Hart sees in his girlfriend. She’s a mess. They are mismatched. Hart tells his friend that he has to get to know her. She’s a great listener and someone he can always count on. Her words are sincere and she is completely herself with him. (“If you could only see the way she loves me/Then maybe you would understand/Why I feel this way about our love/And what I must do/If you could only see how blue her eyes can be when she says/When she says she loves me.”)

               In the pre-chorus, his friend shakes his head and laughs. Hart seethes, knowing his friend has his own agenda. His friend is afraid Hart’s girlfriend will change him. He heard about some nasty stuff she got into back into high school. Is that what he really wants, his friend asks. Hart can’t believe the nerve as he feels himself growing smaller, trying to escape from his friend’s thumb. Hart knows his friend has cheated on a past girlfriend and suspects of him of doing the same on his new one. His friend never has had an honest relationship.  (“Well you got your reasons/And you got your lies/And you got your manipulations/They cut me down to size/Sayin' you love but you don't/You give your love but you won't.”)

               The chorus is sung again.

                 For most of his life, he has remained on the safe route, never venturing out. However, throughout the years it has made him question what he wants from his life. He’s getting the criticism and isolation now.  But if those people don’t accept her, he doesn’t want anything to do with them. (“Seems the road less traveled/Show's happiness unraveled/And you got to take a little dirt/To keep what you love/That's what you gotta do.”)

            In the second pre-chorus, his friend likes the idea of the perfect relationship. However, it’s an illusion. His friend can talk about proposing to his girlfriend but  it’s empty talk. (“Sayin' you love but you don't/You give your love but you won't/You're stretching out your arms to something that's just not there/Sayin' you love where you stand/Give your heart when you can.”)

                The chorus is sung again.

              A third pre-chorus is sung. (“Sayin' you love but you don't/You give your love but you won't/Sayin' you love where you stand/Give your heart when you can.”)

                     The chorus is sung again to close the single.

                     It bothers Hart that his friends question his dating choices. That they can be dismissive and cruel is unsettling for him. How could he share memories with these people? He resents them for being judgemental.

               The  earnest “If You Could Only See” is one of the good ones.