Song Details
- Album Release Date: 2012
- Genre: folk
Song Meaning of “Fools” by Mat McHugh
The song ‘Fools’ by Mat McHugh is a melancholic tune about how love can blind us, and lead us down paths that make us lose our hindsights. The song starts with an observation of how young and inexperienced people can quickly fall into traps that eventually lead them to sorrow. McHugh quickly transitions to musing about how older people can take those experiences and use them to learn from rather than being subject to them again and again.
In the verses, McHugh paints an emotional yet vivid picture of someone blindly believing in a relationship, and how these feelings and emotions can lead to unfortunate situations. Despite this intensity, there is a lot of hope in the song as it conveys the idea that things may not be lost by being foolish. McHugh tells us that even after making the same mistake multiple times, it may still be possible to learn from it and emerge in a better place.
The chorus of the song is a reflection of the contrasts of life; McHugh asks how we can have both hearts and eyes wide open, and yet find ourselves in the same predicaments we were in before. The central message is that love can blind us and this creates a double-edged blade that can both lift us up and bring us down.
The production of the song is fitting with its powerful lyrics. McHugh creates a dreamy and relaxing atmosphere that complements the lyrics, creating a bittersweet moment. In the end, the song is a lesson about learning to accept and learn from our mistakes, and how it’s never too late to pick ourselves up and move forward. This is a theme which McHugh repeats in his other songs as well.