I Know I Love You More

Spoon “Satellite”

“Satellite” is sung from the perspective of someone honoring boundaries set by someone they love but clearly doesn’t love them, and suffering quietly from a distance while insisting “I know I love you more.” Britt Daniel sings this chorus with the full awareness that his love is in vain but he doesn’t care – this isn’t about dignity, this isn’t about reality or possibilities, this is just about the truth as he feels it. It’s not a threat or even an oath to make good on his love, it’s holding on to something pure inside him for a little while longer before it eventually fades away.

This is a fairly old song dating back to around 2014, and one Spoon had seemingly abandoned in the space between They Want My Soul and Hot Thoughts. I’m not sure what the problem was – maybe it just took a while to find the right level of drama and pathos in the arrangement, or perhaps they sensed the song just didn’t fit on Hot Thoughts, or it could be that Daniel needed some space from this sentiment or moment in his life. It’s also possible that he just wasn’t comfortable with using the same “I’m your satellite” lyrical conceit in both this and “Inside Out,” though I like the way the implication feels totally different between the two songs. In “Inside Out,” it’s more about being caught in an attraction so strong he barely can resist it, and in this he’s just this person orbiting someone on the periphery of their life because he can’t let go.

It’s a similar shift in perspective that makes that chorus so different from Karen O singing “wait, they don’t love you like I love you” in “Maps” despite essentially saying the same thing. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs song comes from a place of vulnerability, she’s finding the courage to say something that scares her a little. “I know I love you more” is a statement of pride, it’s coming from a place of refusing to lose when it’s clear the game is over. Daniel makes the song sting by leaning into that pride, and letting you feel it as he dismantles his own romantic delusions.

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