Unlike "Utopia" and "Future Politics", the first two singles from Toronto-based electronic band Austra's third album (2017), "I Love You More Than You Love Yourself" avoids the album's overarching thematic focus on the human condition in the not-that-distant future in favour of the kind of poignant, directly emotional songs that characterized Olympia(2013). Instead of being concerned with the corrosive effects of predatory capitalism and the possible effects that future technologies might have on the human psyche, Katie Stelmanis offers a tender portrait of love's redemptive capacities:
'There is nothing in your soul tonightI only see darknessAnd there is nothing in your soul tonightI only see darknessThe past, how thick it growsShakes up what you didn’t knowProceeding, try a little bit harder, babyYou’re indifferentYou’re a stranger to what makes you feel goodI love you more than you love yourselfI love you more than you love yourself'
Lyrics: Genius
On the surface, the song appears to be a subtle and touching depiction of the challenges involved in relating to someone suffering through a depressive episode. The music video, however, which sees Stelmanis purchasing a hammer, thrash bags, rubber tubing, rubber gloves, a trench coat, and a black wig while wearing NASA's signature blue bodysuit, indicates that the song was inspired by something very specific:
"M [Blash] and I were both fascinated by the story of Lisa Nowak but wanted to explore it through a lens of compassion. We wanted to use it to explore issues of mental health and depression, things so many of us experience, in the hope of further de-stigmatizing such conversations. We've decided to focus the actions leading up to her final arrest, and have tried to convey what it may have been like to be her, and what she was feeling. The final chapter of her story is much less interesting to us than that."
Katie Stelmanis, Exclaim!
