A good song for learning vocabulary about personality. It has hit straight up to number 20 in the American chart, climbing at the speed of light (feb 2010). Orianthi started her career as guitarist, played with Prince and was hired to play with Michael Jackson in his frustrated coming back concerts.

Orianthi was born in Adelaide, South Australia, of Greek descent. She suffered against bullies in her schooling years and had to change schools a number of times. She eventually attended the prestigious school Cabra Dominican College where she found herself happy and bully free. She learned to play the acoustic guitar at six because of her father, started electric when she was eleven and left school at 15 to focus on writing songs and performing. She has been playing in different friends' bands since she was 14 in England and in France. Her first support show was for Steve Vai at age 15. Orianthi had the opportunity to meet and jam with Carlos Santana when she was 18. He invited Orianthi to get up and jam with him at soundcheck then later asked if she would join him on stage that night to jam. She signed with Geffen Records in late 2006 and struck a management deal with 19 Entertainment. As of 2010, she lives in the United States and in Asia.

According to you
I’m stupid, I’m useless,
I can’t do anything right.
According to you
I’m difficult, hard to please,
forever changing my mind.
I’m a mess in a dress,
can’t show up on time,
even if it would save my life.
According to you. According to you.

But according to him
I’m beautiful, incredible,
he can’t get me out of his head.
According to him
I’m funny, irresistible,
everything he ever wanted.
Everything is opposite,
I don’t feel like stopping it,
so baby tell me what I got to lose.
He’s into me for everything I’m not,
according to you.

According to you
I’m boring, I’m moody
and you can’t take me any place.
According to you
I suck at telling jokes cause I always give it away.
I’m the girl with the worst attention span;
you’re the boy who puts up with that.
According to you. According to you.

But according to him
I’m beautiful, incredible,
he can’t get me out of his head.
According to him
I’m funny, irresistible,
everything he ever wanted.
Everything is opposite,
I don’t feel like stopping it,
so baby tell me what I got to lose.
He’s into me for everything I’m not,
according to you.

I need to feel appreciated,
like I’m not hated. oh no
Why can’t you see me through his eyes?
It’s too bad you’re making me decide.

But according to me
you’re stupid, you’re useless,
you can’t do anything right.

But according to him
I’m beautiful, incredible,
he can’t get me out of his head.
According to him
I’m funny, irresistible,
everything he ever wanted.
Everything is opposite,
I don’t feel like stopping it,
baby tell me what I got to lose.
He’s into me for everything I’m not,
according to you. [you, you]
According to you. [you, you]

According to you
I’m stupid,
I’m useless,
I can’t do anything right.

ACCORDING TO YOU= In your opinion.
If we say something “according to XX”, it means that this is what XX says, thinks or believes:
- According to the Romans, Spain was covered with forests from coast to coast. (that’s what Romans said)
- According to my mother, most teenagers are pathologically crazy (that’s my mother’s opinion)
- According to the weather forecast, tomorrow it’s going to rain a lot (that’s what they said on TV)

USELESS= Of no use, incapable of doing anything right.

DIFFICULT= A difficult person is someone who is difficult to live with.

HARD TO PLEASE= If someone is hard to please, it is very difficult to make them happy because they don’t like anything you do for them, they think everything’s wrong.

FOREVER CHANING MY MIND= Always changing my opinions.
When you change your mind, you start thinking in a different way. For example, you decide to paint the room red, but then you change your mind and decide to paint it blue.

I’M A MESS IN A DRESS= I look horrible wearing a dress because I don’t know how to wear it, I have no style. In western countries most girls always wear trousers today but wear a dress in special occasions because it is more elegant. But some girls are “a mess in a dress” because the are not used to it and feel like a man wearing a skirt.

SHOW UP ON TIME= Arrive on time (not late). If you show up in a place, you arrive there because you have a meeting or you are expected:
- I told Susan to come to the party but she didn’t show up (I was waiting for her or expecting her, but she didn’t come)

EVEN IF IT WOULD SAVE MY LIFE= We sometimes use this phrase to emphasize that you don’t want (or can’t) do something. So even if it were the most important thing in the world, you still wouldn’t do it (it’s an exaggeration, of course):
- I would never kiss you even if it would save my life (I prefer to die rather than kissing you) = I will never kiss you at all!!! Not for a million dollars!

HE CAN’T GET ME OUT OF HIS HEAD= He can’t stop thinking about me.

WANTED= She pronounces this word /wɒnɪd/. This pronunciation is quite common in America, because in most part of America the T may disappear after an N. This doesn’t happen in British English, but we sometimes find it in pop music due to an American influence.

I DON’T FEEL LIKE STOPPING IT= I don’t want to stop it.
If you feel like doing something, you want to do it.

TELL ME WHAT I GOT TO LOSE= Tell me: what can I lose? (got = have got). You use this expression when you have to make a difficult decision and you think: if I take this, it might be positive or negative, but it’s never going to be worse than the present situation, so I may win a lot, but I have nothing to lose.

HE’S INTO ME= He likes me a lot (usually in a romantic way).

HE’S INTO ME FOR EVERYTHING I’M NOT... ACCORDING TO YOU= He likes me for all the qualities you think I don’t possess.

BORING= Be careful with adjectives which can end in –ING or –ED:
- ING -- causing that effect on the others: She is boring, always talking about clothes.
- ED -- receiving that effect from the outside: She is bored, she doesn’t like the film.

MOODY= A person with frequent changes of mood (now they feel happy, now angry, now depressed, etc). Also a person who very often gets angry or depressed.

YOU CAN’T TAKE ME ANY PLACE= Every time you take me somewhere I feel bad or I don’t like it or I make you feel bad, or I embarrass you because I don’t know how to behave there, or I don’t fit... so it’s always a good idea.

I SUCK= (coll.) I’m a mess, I’m horrible.
If you suck at something, you do it terrible wrong: Tim sucks at cooking, he can’t even fry an egg!

CAUSE= (coll.) because. Also: cos, coz (BrE), cuz (AmE)

I ALWAYS GIVE IT AWAY= If you give a joke away, you say something that make people know what’s going to happen in the end, so it’s not funny. This is an example of giving a joke away:
- Ok, Do you know the story of the pregnant girl who was having dinner with his boyfriend’s parents and they asked her, “why are you getting so fat?”, and she... Oh no, I told you she was pregnant, right? Sorry, I spoilt the joke, I gave it away.

ATTENTION SPAN= Your attention span is the time you can be concentrated on one single thing. Sooner or later you get tired and your mind moves to something else. People with a short attention span can’t keep concentrated in one single thing for a long time (for example children). If she is the girl with the worst attention span it means that her attention span is very very short. In the song they use the superlative simply as a way of emphasizing the idea (she's not the worst, she is simply terribly at that).

PUTS UP WITH= Suffer. If you put up with something, you suffer its bad consequences:
- Why do I have to put up with all your stupid ideas?
- Sorry, I can’t put up with all this, I’m leaving.

APPRECIATED= Loved, valued.

LIKE I’M NOT HATED= (I need to feel like I’m not hated) = I need to feel that you don’t hate me.

SEE ME THROUGH HIS EYES= Think of me the same as he does.

IT’S TOO BAD= It’s a pity.
- I feel horrible, my boyfriend broke up with me and he’s going away.   - Oh, that’s too bad, I’m sorry.
- I have a spare ticket for the cinema, will you come?  - Too bad I can’t go, I’m having visitors tonight.

The meaning of this song is quite easy to understand. A girl is into a relationship with a man. They have been together for quite a while and now that the fascination has died away he can only see her flaws (bad qualities) and is complaining about it all the time (you’re stupid, you’re useless, you’re always late...).

But now a new man appeared in her life, he feels fascinated about her and likes her (or loves her) very much. Since he’s in love with her, he can’t see any of her flaws, he thinks everything about her is wonderful and perfect.

Obviously she can painfully feel the contrast between what both men feel about her. She loves her present partner but she feels bad with him, and she wishes she could have the best of both worlds: she wishes her present partner could have a wonderful opinion about her just as the other man has.

She feels bad about breaking up with her present partner but she thinks their relationship is already dead, so she has nothing to lose if she leaves him and tries to be happier with the other man.

The only problem with this is that both men are equally distorting their perception about her. She’s neither useless nor perfect, so none of them can love her truly because none of them knows her fully, and fascination can easily turn into aversion.
(this last paragraph is my opinion, they don’t say anything like this in the song)