"Vows" by BC's The Haptics: A Raw Journey Through the Emotional Tides of Relationships

"Vows", the new single from Vancouver- based The Haptics, is a song about shared affections, commitment, and the battles that happen before, during, and after relationships. The lyrics start, "Call me trouble...", as a somewhat snide commentary regarding dating partners who seem to always label their exes as the fire starters. The urge to label a partner as singular entities let us live in binary worlds where those labels help categorize their words and actions as either good or bad, allowing for a less nuanced view of the world that in turn, help us define ourselves. The song continues and asks the listener to "name their poison", informing us that most of us, if not all, have our vices. In the listener's response to that question, the song judges their honesty, saying in return, "In your message/I'll read out/What you missed/In your vows...". The listener is identified as the partner, who is reticent to admit what their vices are and what their weak points may be. The song so takes us through the beginning of the relationship, where the romance forms around both highly romanticizing and demonizing the other, through to the middle, where both parties find out about each other's vices and weaknesses, to an emotional crescendo where the vocalist sums up the relationship in their mental state and finds it lacking. The lyrics end with an emotional call-to-arms where the vocalist asserts their boundaries and reflects on the distance they've traveled together, and the people they've been along the way.

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