“Picture Perfect”, The Meaning Behind the Message

Did you ever meet a person who seemed really abrasive on the outside, but when you finally got the know them they were very likable underneath? Well, “Picture Perfect” is about the opposite type of person. It is about the person who seems really nice on the outside but who is a venomous snake underneath. “Picture Perfect” is not a love song. It is a song about those secretly hostile passive-aggresive types who handle their insecurities and low self esteem by cutting down and sabotaging the budding aspirations and confidence of others in hidden, almost imperceptible, ways. This song was inspired by a several of these soulless zombies, all clad in holiday-spirit shopping attire, who have managed to slither their way into my home from time to time.

But the song is particularly about one girl who would, in an intimate and endearing way, solicit information from me about my personal life only to turn around and use it to criticize, condemn, and ridicule in sneaky and insidious ways. I would walk away feeling that I had been somehow violated and betrayed in such a nice way that it was hard go back and defend myself. Well, this song is my defense. It is my defense against the heartless girl who hides behind a picture perfect facade while she silently stabs friends in the back with invisible knives, and against the pseudo-aristocratic world she deludes herself into thinking is her rightful lineage.

Ok, I know, I’ll get around to writing an actual love song sooner or later, I just needed to lyrically curse out a few people from my past first. KT

PICTURE PERFECT

Diamonds are so beautiful
Crushed right out of coal
Sometimes when the angles right
I can truly see your soul
That sparkle in your eye will get you
gossip from a friend
You’ll use to prove they’ll never fit
in your world in the end, in your

(Picture perfect) Your picture perfect world
(Picture perfect) You’re a picture perfect girl
(Picture perfect) It’s so picture perfect
So high above where you sit and judge the world
My picture perfect girl

The checkers from my past to you
are stepping stones to cross
You climb up to your picture window
and spit down at my loss
The finest wine won’t quench the desert
that lies beneath your chest
‘Cause love is just a card you play
to win the next contest

(repeat chorus)

I wanna tell you everything I feel
I wanna show you there’s so much you could heal
But through your smirks and pretty words that sting
You don’t hear a thing, your a phone that doesn’t ring
You’ve lost your wings

(solo)

Corporate clowns and picket fences
guard you like a queen
So high above the dirty world
but still you can’t get clean

(repeat chorus)

(Picture perfect) Your picture perfect world
(Picture perfect) You’re a picture perfect girl
(Picture perfect) Your picture perfect world
(Picture perfect) You’re so picture perfect

Your picture perfect world
You’re a picture perfect girl
Your picture perfect world
You’re a picture perfect
a picture perfect girl

©2001 Kevin Thomas