Posted by All I Need to Hear is the 4th single extracted from Being Funny in a Foreign Language, the album released by the 1975 in 2022. The song follows other songs already released from that album, many of which we already analyzed on these pages, like Part of the Band and Happiness. This article will explain the meaning of the song All I Need to Hear and will provide the complete lyrics at the end.
You can find the official video of the song below.
All I Need to Hear: the lyrics and their meaning
All I Need to Hear is a poetic love song where the singer admits that he needs to hear that his girl loves him and doesn’t care about anything else. In the track, the author describes many situations where, usually, life asks for your attention, but he realizes that nothing really matters to him: his brain is focused only on the love he feels, and his first need is to know that it’s returned.
The song’s verses depict the daily contexts where the singer finds himself surrounded by people, meeting friends, or sitting in the kitchen. By comparing the boredom he feels in all these situations, the song succeeds in expressing how love is the center of his life right now:
I get out my records
When you go away
When people are talking
I miss what they say
I sit in my kitchen
With nothing to eat
With so many friends I
I don’t wanna meet
When love is inside yourself, at the peak of its intensity, all the rest fades away under the threshold of unimportance. That’s why the chorus explains clearly what really matters to the singer right now:
‘Cause it all means nothing, my dear
If I can’t be holdin’ you near
So tell me you love me
‘Cause that’s all that I need to hear
With minor adjustments, that’s the real focus of his attention: he wants to love, and he needs confirmation that she loves him back. All the rest means nothing. The song’s poetry relies on the way it describes the boring rest of his life, next to what became really important since love is part of his life.
The need to hear precisely those words is so strong that the final verse, surprisingly, reveals how the singer doesn’t even need it to be true: he only wants to hear that confirmation, and he’s OK if it’s just an illusion because that would be the only thing that makes him happy right now.
Oh, I don’t care if you’re insincere
Just tell me what I wanna hear
You know where to find me
The place where we lived all these years, oh
And tell me you love me
That’s all that I need to hear
That’s the real meaning of the lyrics inside All I Need to Hear: I’m completely in love, and right now nothing else matters to me; I don’t even care about what the truth is, the only thing I need is the confirmation that you love me back. Just say it, I don’t need any proof; I only want to hear those words.
Read other popular song lyrics and their meaning on Auralcrave
The complete lyrics
I get out my records
When you go away
When people are talking
I miss what they say
‘Cause it all means nothing, my dear
If I can’t be holdin’ you near
So tell me you love me
‘Cause that’s all that I need to hear
I sit in my kitchen (Do you wanna do the hihats now?)
With nothing to eat
With so many friends I
I don’t wanna meet
‘Cause I don’t need music in my ears
I don’t need the crowds and the cheers
Oh, just tell me you love me
‘Cause that’s all that I need to hear
And I’ve been told so many times before
But hearin’ it from you means much more
So much more
Reply to my message
And pick up my calls
You see, I wrote you a letter
It was no use at all
Oh, I don’t care if you’re insincere
Just tell me what I wanna hear
You know where to find me
The place where we lived all these years, oh
And tell me you love me
That’s all that I need to hear
Oh, tell me you love me
That’s all that I need to hear
