The singer is experiencing emptiness and loneliness in his life and questions if turning to religion could fill that void. He directly addresses God, hoping that religion might alleviate his suffering, but is unsure if God would listen to him since he previously rejected Christianity. By the end, the singer remains unstable and lost, repeatedly questioning how to find himself.

1. ‘IF I BELIEVE YOU’
LYRICAL
ANALYSIS

2. The singer is saying that
he feels like he has an
emptiness in his life, and
by saying it’s “God-
shaped” he is suggesting
that religion could fill that
emptiness.
Part of this emptiness is
caused by the loneliness
that the singer is feeling.The singer describes tossing and turning
in bed, suggesting that the struggles he
is facing are preventing him from
sleeping. He also says he has lost his
head, perhaps suggesting he is also out
of touch with reality or is going crazy due
to his problems.

3. The singer now talks
directly to God,
questioning whether or not
his pain will go away if he
turns to religion.
He further questions what
God wants of him in the
hopes that it will stop his
suffering.
He now describes the pain
he’s in and how desperate
he is to alleviate it, and the
use of “broken” again
suggests that he is not
mentally stable.
He now speaks directly to
Jesus, hoping that He will
reveal Himself so that the
singer knows whether or not
his prayers are being heard by
anyone.

4. He describes having
thought he’s met God,
then states that this is only
because he was high
(dabbing is to press a
piece of cannabis extract
against a heated surface
of an oil rig pipe and inhale
the smoke).
The singer now becomes more sarcastic in his addressing of God. He questions why
he was made an atheist if it truly was God who created him. He proudly proclaims that
he is exactly what the Church doesn’t want him to be: “a lesbian kiss” (as the Bible is
typically believed to be against gay relationships), and “an evangelist” (which is used
to describe someone who actively works to convert others to any ideology or school of
thought. In this case, the singer is referring to when he had previously stated religion
is a disease).
The singer then references the fire and brimstone form of teaching, where preachers
use fear to convert people to Christianity, saying that if they don’t then they will go to
hell.

5. The singer then ends the song by
repeatedly questioning how to find
himself, again reinforcing the
possibility that he is not mentally
stable and needs something to
bring him back to normality.

6. CONCLUSION
Overall, the song has a very clear narrative of a mentally
unstable character trying to lessen their suffering through
religion, though they are unsure whether God will grant them
that relief due to having previously denounced Christianity,
believing they are everything that the Church doesn’t want
them to be.
We think this would be a good song to use for the video, as it
has a strongly established narrative that we would be able to
easily portray, and it would allow for the inclusion of things
like symbolism because we are dealing with a more serious
subject matter.