Bitter Pill isn’t your average angry love song. To understand it a bit better, we must dive into the meaning behind the song.

I had a crush on him, we were in the same community, from what he said it was clear to me that he was single and he was showing interest in me, and I took my chances. We had a one night stand. After that he ghosted me. When we were in a video call together with some friends he suddenly said “some people should know their place, don’t they, Josephine?”. I was already hurt by the whole situation but when I saw him in the video call, I assumed that we could just be adults about it and move on, however, since he wanted to play dirty I immediately wrote him out my system.

Right from the hook you can feel the tension in the compounding harmonies. They represent the thoughts the cheater is having about what he did, how they spiral. You also hear the question “do you have the guts to let her down?” this is both a challenge “do you have the guts to take responsibility for your actions and be truthful to your loved one?” but it’s also a threat “cause I am, I’m aware of what happened and I’m not afraid to tell her, so proceed with caution”.

You can hear the confusion in the first verse, the bottled up emotions, the pre-chorus brings more clarity to the situation. The first chorus is an explosion of vengeance and anger, it’s the frustration, all nicely wrapped with the final hook “I’m a bitter pill to swallow but I taste real sweet now”. This answers the question that was posed in the opening of the song. Meaning at this point the singer has made the decision to come forward with the truth, saying “you thought I was sweet when you cheated with me, watch how bitter I can be”.

The second verse brings the realization of self worth and the power that lies within that.

The thing is, I felt betrayed because of my lack of knowledge. He made me feel easy, like an easy one night stand. And that felt like my power got diminished. But I’m not the victim in this situation. I was a tool to victimize someone else and that felt disgusting. Though it was a bad one, it was still my decision to make. So in this verse I just wanted to get that point across that in no way he had any power over me. At the end of the day I was his victory, he was my mistake.

As you move towards the second chorus Bitter Pill becomes a lot more dance-y, you enter the stage of acceptance, freedom, “oh you wanna play dirty huh? bring it!!”.

The bridge mentions the name of the Cheater “i will Never Ever Let Someone Occasional Near”. The bridge basically means “I’m never gonna make this mistake again”, “till I’m bored cause I always want more” just means that I do still allow myself to “make mistakes” in terms of exploring my own sexuality.