‘Deep’ by Kelsea Ballerini – Lyrics & Meaning

Kelsea Ballerini is back with, perhaps, her most personal work yet, sharing with fans the reflective and thoughtful PATTERNS.

The new 14-track album offers introspection into the artist's life, now five albums and 30 years in, and no track explores her more private moments quite like 'Deep'.

The sensual new offering provides powerful commentary on womanhood, intimacy and pleasure.

'Deep' sounds far from a country song, the atmospheric composition comprised of sultry R&B inflections and pillowy pop sensibilities. With dizzying degrees of synth and sharp, syncopated rhythms, the song is, all at once, lush and spacey, making for an offering quite different than anything Ballerini has shared before.

"Standing in my underwear
Baby, babe, I'm jumpin' right in
It's almost like I don't care
If I even know how to swim
You could save me, maybe, I could save myself
What's a girl to do, lookin' at you
Something crashin' over me like Malibu
I'm diving into you
And it feels like"

'Deep' is, no doubt, about sex, the song an intimate and revealing glimpse at feelings of pleasure and intimacy. But 'Deep' goes much deeper than simply getting off.

The lyrics hint at the vulnerability of new love, of diving head-first into something unfamiliar, uncharted, and a little scary but all-around exciting.

In the beginning, there is caution, with Ballerini wondering if she should save herself, but she jumps in anyway, singing "It's almost like I don't care / If I even know how to swim."

"Oceans
Oceans around me
I think I'm drowning
God, I can't breath, put your mouth on me
Open
In uncharted waters
If lovin' you is an ocean
Then I'm in deep"

The result is a feeling of total abandon, of getting swept up and not caring if she gets washed away.

As the title suggests, she's in deep when it comes to this new love and this new sexual experience. And, in the end, there's nothing she can – or even wants – to do about it, singing "Now, it's too late to swim to shore / I don't need an SOS, I guess."

"I wanna, I wanna, I wanna
Nirvana, nirvana, nirvana
I wanna, I wanna, I wanna
Your body, my body, one body"

To date, 'Deep' is the spiciest of the star's offerings, with Ballerini, herself, admitting in a track-by-track discussion, "This was the song that I was most nervous to play my mother."

She continued, "Here's the thing: this album is made by a 30-year-old woman – 31 now – and I made it with four other women. There is a theme of womanhood and girlhood throughout the whole thing, and one thing about growing up is just being confident in what makes you feel good and being confident in your own skin. I think, for me, I've always kind of shied away from writing about certain subjects; and, for me, 'Deep' is that song where it's, like, committing to the idea that girls can sing about the things that guys sing about, too."

Standing in my underwear
Baby, babe, I'm jumpin' right in
It's almost like I don't care
If I even know how to swim
You could save me, maybe, I could save myself
What's a girl to do, lookin' at you
Something crashin' over me like Malibu
I'm diving into you
And it feels like

Oceans
Oceans around me
I think I'm drowning
God, I can't breath, put your mouth on me
Open
In uncharted waters
If lovin' you is an ocean
Then I'm in deep

Now, it's too late to swim to shore
I don't need an SOS, I guess
From the waves to the floor
I let you move me east to west
I'm running, I'm running, I'm running out of air
All over me, everywherе
Oh, I'm almost there
And it feels like

Oceans
Oceans around me
I think I'm drowning
God, I can't breath, put your mouth on me
Open
In uncharted waters
If lovin' you is an ocean
Then I'm in deep,
Deep, deep, deep, deep

I wanna, I wanna, I wanna
Nirvana, nirvana, nirvana
I wanna, I wanna, I wanna
Your body, my body, one body

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