Songs with a "Punchline" -- Why I love "Ceilings" by Lizzy McAlpine

Ceilings by Lizzy McAlpine is an alternative folk pop ballad that came out in 2022 and has become extremely popular recently as a Tik Tok sound. If you’ve only heard the sped-up version as the background music to a social media post though, I am here to tell you that the song is so much more clever and well written than you might have realized. It is a song that has a “punchline,” which is a term that I use to describe a song that the listener thinks is about one thing until the artist reminds you that the song was about something else all along. I think describing this as the “punchline” of a song is also a great description of what Lizzy McAlpine does in Ceilings because it feels like a punch to the gut when the sad truth of the song is revealed. If you want the full experience of this song, play it aloud as you follow along with the lyrics below and my interpretation of each section.

“Ceilings, plaster

Can’t you just make it move faster? 

Lovely to be sitting here with you

You’re kinda cute and it’s raining harder,

My shoes are now full of water

Lovely to be rained on with you,

It’s kinda cute but it’s"

In the beginning of the song, the speaker is staring at the ceiling wishing that their life would move faster. They feel stuck, and the way they even take notice of the plaster on the ceiling expresses the boredom they are feeling in their life. Suddenly though, the speaker says how it is lovely to just be sitting with the subject of the song. They use the word “cute” to describe just sitting with the subject, which shows that the subject makes the speaker feel happy even in the mundane or regular moments. When the two of them are getting rained on in the next line, it is not an inconvenience or unpleasant, but instead it’s “lovely,”

"So short, then you’re driving me home,

And I don’t want to leave

But I have to go,

You kiss me in your car 

And it feels like the start of a movie I’ve seen before,

Before,"

In the first chorus, the speaker explains how they don't want their time with the subject to end but they have to go home anyways. When they kiss, it feels like “the start of a movie [the speaker has] seen before,” as if it feels familiar. The speaker feels so comfortable with the subject of the song that their romance feels like a movie, which is idealistic and picture perfect.

"Bedsheets, no clothes,

Touch me like nobody else does,

Lovely to just lay here with you

You’re kinda cute and I would say all of this,

But I don’t want to ruin the moment

Lovely to sit between comfort and chaos,”

The second verse is about the relationship between the speaker and the subject progressing and their bond growing closer than before. If the first verse is about the pair first getting to know each other, the second verse is when the connection starts to get more serious and deep. Not only are they intimate together in ways that they are with no one else, but the speaker also says that it’s lovely to “just lay” together. This line shows how the emotional intimacy is growing between the two along with the physical intimacy. Then the speaker goes on to explain how they would tell the subject how much they are enjoying their closeness, but they refrain to avoid “ruining the moment.” The speaker feels conflicted in feelings of enjoyment but also feeling unsure of where the relationship is going, but even that emotional tightrope is described as “lovely.” 

“But it’s over, 

Then you’re driving me home,

And it kind of comes out as I get up to go,

You kiss me in your car

And it feels like the start of a movie I’ve seen before,”

Just like the first chorus, the speaker has to leave the person they are falling for even though they don't want to. The speaker starts to tell their love interest how they feel as they “get up to go,” but they aren’t able to fully express themselves or communicate their feelings. The relationship still seems to be ideal and polished as the speaker describes their kiss as “the start of a movie [they’ve] seen before." 

“But it’s not real,

And you don’t exist,

And I can’t recall the last time I was kissed,

It hits me in the car

And it feels like the end of a movie I’ve seen before,

Before…”

The last part of this song is when shit get’s REAL. You guys… it was all in the speaker’s head. Do you remember how the song started with the lines “ceilings, plaster, can’t you just make it move faster?” The speaker feels stuck and bored, and desperately wants this relationship and to fall in love, or just to have something to make them feel something. The whole song was a sad daydream of what could be, and we as the listener get swept into this dream right along with the speaker. It isn’t until the ending of the song when we realize none of it was real, and it makes the true meaning of this song hit so much harder because we really believed it too, just like the speaker did. When the remembrance of reality hits the speaker in the car, we feel the weight of that realization because we are finally seeing the situation for what it truly is. Do you want to know why “it feels like the end of a movie [they’ve] seen before…”? Maybe it’s because the speaker falls into this daydream all the time.

Not only is this song relatable, it is cleverly written so that the writing style emphasizes what the lyrics are about. I love when a song describes a very specific emotion and the artist creates the song in a way that allows you to feel like you know exactly how it would feel to experience what they are describing, even if you have never experienced it. I think Lizzy McAlpine has a bright future in music, and I can’t wait to hear the music she puts out next.

(Five Seconds Flat Album Cover by Lizzy McAlpine from Spotify)