Love Is

Song Meaning

Alannah Myles's "Love Is" isn't a saccharine proclamation of romance, but a raw, almost desperate exploration of its contradictions and subjective nature. The opening lines paint love as something elusive and volatile: "Hard to get, impossible to hold, straight as an arrow, like a burnin' fuse." This juxtaposition immediately establishes the central tension within the song's meaning. It acknowledges love's potential for both directness and destruction, its capacity to be both a guiding force and a self-destructive impulse. The lyrics suggest a longing for definition, a desperate attempt to understand love's multifaceted nature. The recurring lines "Love is what you want it to be, love is heaven to the lonely" hint at a personalized experience, suggesting that love's meaning is not universal but rather shaped by individual desires and circumstances. The song delves into the vulnerability and uncertainty that often accompany love. Lines like "Close my eyes, search the stars, cry for help, wake up cold" convey a sense of disorientation and emotional exposure. The phrase "You're in my system, under my skin" speaks to the deeply visceral and consuming nature of love, suggesting that it can permeate one's being, blurring the boundaries between self and other. This sense of vulnerability is further heightened by the plea, "Please don't go," which reveals a fear of abandonment and a desire for connection. Ultimately, Alannah Myles's "Love Is" acknowledges the difficulty in defining something so profoundly personal and often contradictory. The bridge, with its emphasis on intuition and trust ("Gotta run on instinct, gotta go by feel"), suggests that love cannot be understood through logic or reason, but rather through an embrace of vulnerability and a willingness to surrender to its unpredictable nature. The song's meaning lies not in providing a definitive answer to the question of what love is, but in capturing the messy, complex, and deeply human experience of seeking it.