Said by Latham herself to be "first and foremostly about ghosting", it is an experience many attempting to date nowadays have had to face, making it a deeply resonating listen. Starting boldly, the first line of the track "To where did your kindness extend / To bruises on my neck?" acts as a rhetorical question, where Latham is pondering the irony of the fact that their kindness went as far as physical affection, yet it could not stretch to anything more meaningful. The following lines in the pre-chorus, "So if I hurt you / You can call me cruel / And when you hurt me / You can change that rule", expose a foreseeable imbalance in emotional responsibility, in which the other person is rewriting standards to best suit themselves, utterly ignoring accountability and doing so as they "please".
'The Protagonist's chorus expands on this topic of emotional capacity, as Latham is heard describing someone acting as if the whole world revolves around them, practically accusing them of emotional selfishness, validating the concept that they will have ended the relationship on their own terms without considering the impacts on her. Abruptly, the climactic bridge of this track acts as a moment of callous realisation for Latham as she acknowledges, amongst the heartbreak, that she is also guilty of being "the protagonist" ("And I will only call them up / When I'm hungry for affection"). Concluding with an altered version of the chorus, in which the pronouns are changed from "You" to "I", Latham takes back her own narrative, placing herself as the main character of the story, and accepting that she is in control of her own "happiness".
If you would like to hear this song in person, Baby Queen is going on a record store tour, starting this week (from 21st July) to celebrate the release of her album 'I Hope You Don't Remember Me'.
Finn Delisle
Image: 'The Protagonist' Official Single Cover