Objects in the Mirror

‘Objects in the Mirror’ is the 8th track of Mac Miller’s 2nd studio album ‘Watching Movies with the Sound Off’ and is often hailed as one of his best songs. As explained by Mac, even though the song has lyrics that allude to love, the song is actually about addiction. After the release of ‘Blue Slide Park’, his 1st studio album, albeit a commercial success, Mac underwent extreme amounts of stress due to the poor critical reception of the project and became addicted to drugs in an attempt to deal with the situation.

In an interview with Billboard in 2013 as he explained every track by track, Mac stated that it was his wish for everyone to interpret ‘Watching Movies with the Sound Off’ in their own personal way. And as such, we flip the interpretation of addiction and drugs back into the boundaries of love. But more specifically, this interpretation does so in an unconventional manner: falling in love with an avoidant partner while being unable to deal with anxiety.

The first few lines of the first verse paint the picture of a man falling in love with a girl, comparing his endless thinking about her as if it were a means to earn her love. He also expresses his views of how this girl is ‘perfect’ in his eyes and possibly unlike any other person he has encountered in the past.

‘People love you when they on your mind
a thought is love’s currency
And I’ve been thinking about her all the time
I’ve never seen somebody put together perfectly
What would I have to do to call you mine?
Someone like you is so hard to find’

The next lines of the verse also establish the image of the girl:

‘You can open up your eyes or you can walk in blind
All I ask is that you hurry
I won’t hurt you, don’t you worry
Listen to me, I’mma set you free
He ain’t gonna break your heart again’

With these lines, we can interpret this girl as a person who might be an avoidant – someone who has been hurt in the past by unknown circumstances (although it is strongly hinted to be related to a past relationship) and who fears emotional intimacy with a new partner due to the fear of being hurt and betrayed again. In other words, a girl who ‘avoids’ love due to the fear of heartbreak.

What’s interesting about these lines is that we can sense some degree of insistence from the man asking the girl to give him a chance. The urgency of this type of insistence is very peculiar, letting us connect the idea that this urgency might be related to anxiety. This man is possibly even someone with an anxious-attachment style, with an inner urge to quick-start a relationship because of the fear of losing someone he’s so interested in.

Furthermore, the last lines of the first verse can be interpreted as this person somehow reminiscing about a past relationship and realizing that he has not healed fully yet. 

‘I never thought that it would feel this way
You never taught me how to heal the pain
I wish you caught me on a different day
when it was easier to be happy’

As the first chorus of the song kicks in, the man not only acknowledges his infatuation with his new love interest but also acknowledges the hold his anxiety and the unhealed pain from his past relationship has on him, wishing he could be free from it. He invites this girl to trust him and to join him in leaving everything behind: in his case, the anxiety and pain from a past failed relationship, and in her case, the fear and reluctance of entering a new relationship, caused by the pain of being hurt and betrayed in the past.

‘I wish we could go and be free
Once, baby you and me
We could change the world forever
and come back again
Let’s leave it all in the rear-view
Let’s leave it all in the rear-view, girl
You don’t have to cry‘

However, the second verse takes on a different whole perspective when compared to the first. This verse suggests some kind of conflict with the girl, probably caused by anxiety. It suggests either a discussion or a fight fueled by anxiety that has made the avoidant girl back up or withdraw into an emotionally-unavailable position. 

‘I promise that I’ll be a different man
Please give me the chance to go and live again
I’m having some trouble, can you give a hand?
It seems perfection really is so unattainable’

These lines shift the tone of the song into something more introspective – focusing more on the anxiety and struggles to keep afloat while pursuing a new love interest.

As the verse progresses, we can take a look into this man’s struggles, of how they seem to get worse and spiral into an anxiety attack. He expresses resignation when he says that ‘he’s not sure there’s an end at all’ when it comes to his anxiety and desperately calls on us to figure out how to stop feeling this way.

‘I’m not so sure that there’s an end at all
I wish the truth would just reveal itself
Who do you call to make it to the top?
And who do you call to make the shooting stop?
And who do you call to give the coupe a wash?‘

The second chorus repeats the same lines from its predecessor. This time, however, we can interpret the chorus as something entirely different: instead of a man inviting the girl to join him and escape their issues, he wishes to himself he could break free and leave all of his problems and struggles ‘in the rear-view’. We can even shift the interpretation of the lines

‘Just a little taste and you know she got you
Can you hide away? Can you hide away?‘

as getting a taste of anxiety and finding himself unable to escape from it. It can also be interpreted as a twisted tone shift from a declaration of love into a declaration of obsession. He is obsessed with her – he cannot hide away from these feelings.

In the end, he repeats to himself he doesn’t have to cry. 

Let’s leave it all in the rear-view, girl.
You don’t have to cry.