'Hell of A Show' by Megan Moroney - Lyrics & Meaning

The closer to Moroney's much anticipated 2024 sophomore album Am I Okay?, 'Hell of A Show' finds Moroney battling with finding everything she wanted while feeling totally dismantled by a lover who she can't forget, all despite the way he treated her.

Releasing the song a day before the album dropped on Thursday, July 11, Moroney revealed that 'Hell of A show' was "a poem that I wrote on the back of my bus around 1am during the lucky tour".

Captured in a live field recording, 'Hell of A Show' begins with the sound of a creaking door closing and Moroney settling into the space, picking up a guitar before beginning to sing. It really accentuates both the nature in which she wrote the piece (in the back of her tour bus, in the middle of god knows where, alone) and the openness with which she sings.

The space is filled by the sound of a sharp, fingerpicked acoustic, the air prickled by single notes of bright, soft guitar.

Similar in situation and lyrical candidness to Kelsea Ballerini's stunning 2023 single 'Blindsided', Moroney sings about being finding some of the greatest personal achievement in her career and actual contentment in life, but still being drained by bullshit from an emotionally vexing guy.

It's everything I've wanted, I'm lucky as can be

And I'm on stage in twenty, and he's so damn mean to me

In the first verse, Moroney suggests that, even though everything is going right for her, she can't take her mind away from the one thing that's going wrong. As humans, we naturally focus and hook onto the negative situations or feelings that pervade us, and Moroney, despite succeeding in every other situation in that moment, can't seem to shake off why this guy won't love her.

I guess you could say I put on a hell of a show

'Cause I'll smile and I'll sing and I'll wave and repeat

And tonight, I'll cry myself to sleep

Where Moroney would usually gloss her emotions with quippy one-liners or throwaway shrugs, the vulnerability, dread and defeat that fills her voice feels some of her most forthright. She's determined not to let down those that actually show her so much love and admiration, so feigns happiness despite feeling horrendous inside.

In less than two minutes, MeMo leaves us both heartbroken for how she's feeling and hoping she can find some solace and peace in her self and everything she's achieving, leaving Am I Okay? on a narrative cliffhanger.

Sold out on a marquee, my name is up in lights

A line's wrapped 'round the building,

homemade t-shirts and homemade signs

It's everything I've wanted, I'm lucky as can be

And I'm on stage in twenty, and he's so damn mean to me

Keep it together, I can keep it together

For the room full of people here who love me better

Than he could've or would've, and should've, I know

I guess you could say I put on a hell of a show

'Cause I'll smile and I'll sing and I'll wave and repeat

and tonight, I'll cry myself to sleep

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