Heize - Jenga: lyrical analysis

Another one of my favorite artists released a couple new songs in music video form recently.  Heize’s title track for Wish & Wind is a song called “Jenga” that focuses on trying to preemptively end a destructive relationship before things get worse.  At first, Heize wanted to play the game of love, but as things turn sour, she wants out and does anything to try to keep it working but eventually will have to opt out.  Jenga is a game popularized in the early 1980s and involves building a tower from wooden blocks. The purpose of the game is to stack the tower as high as possible from lower blocks without knocking the tower over.

I just wanted to play this game
Completely taken over by love
I filled myself up
No one ever told me to
But I started building a tower
I’m filled with pieces of you

Heize is starting off the song by stating that love is a game and in some sense, it is.  She’s more than just saying it’s a game, she’s using a game as a literal metaphor for love.  “Jenga” is the name of the game and if any of you know how Jenga works, you have a tower of wood blocks and the point is the remove as many from the bottom and place them on top without knocking the tower over.

Your eyes, nose, lips fill up my heart
Your unique way of talking, your tone
When they start to fade
My days start to sway
Even though so many holes are in my heart
The reason I could endure is you
Now if you take a single step away
I would break down

She has become reliant on this other person.  We’ve seen this sort of thing before. “[Her] days start to sway” without the lover.  This is again referring back to the metaphor of Jenga. Things are becoming unstable and the tower might come crashing down.  Another look back to the metaphor she’s been building up is “...so many holes are in my heart” suggesting that where the wood blocks have been taken out have left holes in her heart.  She is becoming the literal tower of wood blocks. She is Jenga.

I don’t wanna play this game no more
Somebody help
I don’t wanna play this game no more
Somebody help

At this point, she’s trying to make a preemptive attempt to end things before they get too ugly.  ​

When the tower collapses
I’m afraid of turning into ruins
So how about I build a fence around it
So it can stay as a monument
As I imagine these things that haven’t even happened
I’m holding onto the seams
But you won’t look at me like you did before
You don’t think of our love
As the Tower of Pisa
So let me get ready for the end of this game
So when it comes crashing down
We won’t be a spectacle for others

Heize truly fears the trouble that she sees as inevitable at this point.  She suggests building a fence around her so she doesn’t collapse. She wants to become a monument, untouched.  In the end, Heize doesn’t want a spectacle of their relationship. She wants to end it prior to the mess that is eminent.  

Your eyes, nose, lips fill up my heart
Your unique way of talking, your tone
When they start to fade
My days start to sway
Even though so many holes are in my heart
The reason I could endure is you
Now if you take a single step away
I would break down

I don’t wanna play this game no more
Somebody help
I don’t wanna play this game no more
Somebody help

The wind is blowing
I don’t think I can stand it anymore
Can’t you fill me up again?
My heart is hardening
It has lost its meaning

The wind (Wish & Wind is the name of her album) plays a threat against Heize and her hole-filled tower.  She asks to return to a previous state where she felt more whole. She’s hopeful but aware of what is about to come.

I don’t wanna play this game no more
Somebody help
I don’t wanna play this game no more
Somebody help

[Lyrics from: www.colorcodedlyrics.com]