The Chainsmokers released their third studio album ‘World War Joy’ on December 6, 2019, and the tracklist starts off with a quite dark and ominous song. Titled “The Reaper,” the song features vocals by Andrew Taggart of The Chainsmokers and Australian singer Amy Shark. Together, they sing about a death-like personality within their partners. What does this song mean? Let us explore.
The ‘World War Joy’ album by The Chainsmokers produced some stellar hits such as “Takeaway” featuring Illenium and Lennon Stella, “Call You Mine” featuring Bebe Rexha, and “Kills You Slowly.” One thing that has been apparent all throughout these songs are that Andrew Taggar is really pulling through as a vocalist as well. Even on “The Reaper,” Andrew does an amazing job along with Amy Shark.
“The Reaper” talks about the duality of personalities of a person, with a focus on relationships. More specifically, The Chainsmokers sing about the killer-like personality of the girl he is dating. Amy Shark, playing the role of the girl in the song, does not disagree.
The lyric video released for the song is a work of art. The lyrics appear in the styles of famous horror and thriller movie title styles. See if you can spot them in the video below.
In the lyrics of the song, The Chainsmokers sing about their partner with a pretty face. However, this pretty face can turn ugly quite soon too. That is the two-face nature in all of us. In this relationship, the singer is clueless as to which face he will be facing tonight, because she is so unpredictable.
The chorus by Amy Shark gives real thriller/horror vibes. She sings about residing in the hills with the reaper–the Grim Reaper himself. But is this Grim Reaper a reference to her boyfriend? She has done something bad and she wonders if he knows. The worst part is that she thinks it is okay to have done what she did because, well, it’s only for fun!
In the only verse by Andrew Taggart, he sings of his efforts to keep his girlfriend happy. “Pulling the trigger” can be a reference to many things. In a sexual context, it could mean to keep her pleasured in bed, and thus calmer.
The Chainsmokers also talk about the music industry where everyone is looking to leech off fame by featuring with some popular artist. But they are not willing to do the hard work to become the success The Chainsmokers have become.
Let us hear what you think about “The Reaper” by The Chainsmokers in the comments below? Is it not the perfect soundtrack for a thriller movie?
I absolutely love this song its so does get in ur head and is so real in its lyrics i wish it was played on the radio more