Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
This is my very first review! I will start with the Billboard Top 100 Christian songs, starting with number one, NF’s Let You Down.
Note to new users: This is a different kind of review site! Read About the Berean Test and Evaluation Criteria prior to reading this review.
1. What message does the song communicate?
Overall, the message is highly negative, though given the person’s situation, it is understandable why. The speaker expresses extreme disapproval of their current relationship and makes several sarcastic remarks at the other person. This is completely understandable, especially if it’s an abusive relationship; However, it is the wrong message to send.
Fed up with the actions of the other person and realizing they will not listen to him, he leaves the house, requesting no further communication. On his way out, he makes more sarcastic remarks towards the other person.
Score: 1/10
2. How much of the lyrics line up with Scripture?
Little in the lyrics line up with Scripture. While I can appreciate the speaker’s honesty in expressing how he feels (as much of the Psalmists have done that), the way he handled his words wasn’t Christian. I applaud him for leaving the relationship.
I did not find genuine repentance for wrongdoing as outlined in Psalm 51. He did not acknowledge any wrongdoing on his part and blamed everything on the other person. Perhaps there was none to acknowledge. I’ll keep that in mind and err on the side of caution.
Lyrics posted with permission.*
[Chorus]
Feels like we’re on the edge right now
I wish that I could say I’m proud
I’m sorry that I let you down
Let you down
All these voices in my head get loud
I wish that I could shut them out
I’m sorry that I let you down
Le-le-let you down
This is the honest expression of internal torment. When he says “I’m sorry that I let you down”, was he sarcastic or genuine? Given the rest of the lyrics, I lean towards the former.
[Verse 1]
Yeah, I guess I’m a disappointment, doin’ everything I can
I don’t wanna make you disappointed, it’s annoying
I just wanna make you feel like everything I ever do
Was never tryna make an issue for you, but I guess the more you
Thought about everything you were never even wrong
In the first place, right? Yeah, I’ma just ignore you
Walking towards you with my head down
Lookin’ at the ground, I’m embarrassed for you
Paranoia, what did I do wrong this time?
That’s parents for you
Very loyal? Shoulda had my back
But you put a knife in it—my hands are full
What else should I carry for you?
I cared for you, but…
Complete and brutal honesty; however, once again, this is not the Christian way to handle things.
[Verse 2]
Yeah, you don’t wanna make this work
You just wanna make this worse
Want me to listen to you, but you don’t ever hear my words
You don’t wanna know my hurt yet
Let me guess, you want an apology, probably
How can we keep going at a rate like this?
We can’t, so I guess I’ma have to leave
Please, don’t come after me
I just wanna be alone right now, I don’t really wanna think at all
Go ahead, just drink it off
Both know you’re gonna call tomorrow like nothing’s wrong
Ain’t that what you always do?
I feel like every time I talk to you, you’re in an awful mood
What else can I offer you?
There’s nothing left right now, I gave it all to you
Much like any heated discussion, it escalates. This verse does a wonderful job capturing how that works. He is starting the process of an example laid out in Matthew 10:14. Though the context of this passage is about the Disciples of Jesus witnessing and “shake the dust” when the town they stay at does not receive them, the application we could apply, given this verse, is to walk away when the other person stops listening. This is the only part thus far that lines up with Scripture.
[Verse 3]
Yeah, don’t talk down to me
That’s not gonna work now
Packed all my clothes and I moved out
I don’t even wanna go to your house
Every time I sit on that couch
I feel like you lecture me, eventually, I bet that we
Could have made this work
And prolly woulda figured things out
But I guess I’m a letdown
But it’s cool, I checked out
Oh, you wanna be friends now?
Okay, let’s put my fake face on and pretend now
Sit around and talk about the good times that didn’t even happen
I mean, why are you laughing?
Must have missed that joke, let me see if I can find a reaction
No, but at least you’re happy
Finally, he leaves the relationship, completing the example laid out in Matthew 10:14. While I cannot condone his attitude, I can appreciate his candor.
Score: 3/10
3. How would an outsider interpret the song?
Anyone who has an abusive relationship will completely identify with his reaction, even though it’s not the Christian way. This is a great example of what NOT to do when leaving an abusive relationship, though it is common. Outsiders will applaud his leaving as I do.
Score: 3/10
4. What does this song glorify?
It doesn’t glorify anything, that is not the purpose of the song. it certainly does not glorify God!
Score: 0/10
Closing Comments
Let You Down is not meant to line up with Scripture; however, I did manage to find one Bible verse to which it lines up. While I applaud leaving abusive relationships and brutal honesty and can completely understand how one “explodes” when they are at their last straw, the way in which they approached the other person wasn’t Christian.
Final score: 2/10
Artist Info
Track: Let You Down (listen to the song)
Artist: NF
Album: Perception
Genre: Hip Hop/Rap
Release Year: 2017
Duration: 3:32
Agree? Disagree? Don’t be shy or have a cow! Calmly and politely state your case in a comment, below.
*Copyright © 2017 Tommee Profitt Songs (ASCAP) NF Real Publishing (BMI) Capitol CMG Genesis (ASCAP) Capitol CMG Paragon (BMI) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Updates:
01/27/2018 – Originally, I gave this a score of 0/10 and insisted to stay away from this song. Thanks to the comments of NumbersWithFriends (reddit) and one other reddit user, I decided to slightly change my review.
Comments
Nathaniel Nickerson
Hey, hate to object to this review a third way, but as the lyrics hint and the video makes more explicit, the song is from both perspectives at mixed points, both parent and child, show how forgiveness in one’s heart is necessary. That doesn’t necessarily change things, but it’s a whole other lens to review from.
tastywallet
Nathaniel,
I think I see where you’re going with this, that by providing an example of the destructive nature of unforgiveness, it shows why we need to forgive one another. I tend to avoid music videos and focus on the lyrics at hand. Generally, I find music videos to be more of a distraction and a nuisance than an aid to lyrical examination.
I do take authorship intent into consideration and I listen to each song at least once to look for inflections lost in written format.
Nathaniel Nickerson
Personally, I inferred a bit deeper, that even when leaving is clearly what is needed as
a physical act, forgiveness will forever be an essential part of spiritual satisfaction, and without it, any physical solution is hollow, on either end.
That is an interpretation of an interpretation of an interpretation, however, hence why my initial comment only touched on the first few parts, as beyond that I think it’s far from an interpretation that I necessarily think others will reach.
EB
NF’s music videos are known to represent the song and story at hand. No money flashing or other nusenses. If you really take the time to watch and research everything in the music video, I believe you can understand the track better. Although like Nathanial said, the music video probably wouldn’t change your opinion based on the perspective you’re giving.
tastywallet
EB,
Thank you for your comment! I did see the video and you are correct: it did not change my mind.
-TastyWallet
Not Your Business
Dude not every song is not gonna clarify god
tastywallet
Not Your Business,
Thank you for reading my review! Yes, I understand that; However, that is not the only issue I had with that song. For example, Kutless’ Million Dollar Man does not clarify God either; However, its message is highly biblical.
-TastyWallet
James
Not your business,. I agree that not every song needs to glorify God or be Biblical to reach people. Imagine the reach this song has and that it can open the door for NF to share the Gospel. We forget sometimes how Christ changed the world in 3 years by reaching the lost where they are and not by preaching at them.
Matthew Lacy
Tastywallet,
I will point out that NF is among the controversial crowd of, “Christians who make music”. You would be hard pressed to find on of his songs that does pass your test. That said, I feel as if your review was on point.
-Matthew.
tastywallet
Matthew,
Thank you for your comment and for this information! I do not suspect that I will do anymore “NF” reviews, especially since none have been requested.
-TastyWallet
Dave
Listen to more than one song. Listen from the first song to the last. Regardless of where you stand on him the songs are a movie to his life. Each corresponding to each other as the next. Let you down was about his struggle with his dad and feels like he let him down due to his behavior and OCD, but left his dad because he felt like a disappointment due to not telling him what his mother’s boyfriend was doing to him in “How could you leave us” hinted by the car. How he felt while his dad couldn’t do anything to help him. The man was later in “Leave me Alone” sitting there with him in shopping carts with the black balloons his OCD (Troubles, Doubt, etc). In “When I Grow Up” was after he left his dad to start his career and before Xist picked him up under their label. Talks about his struggles through each one to relate to those who are struggling just like he and his sisters did. I feel like that’s reaching those who other artists were able to prior to. Everybody has their opinions, but do me a favor and listen to each of his songs and you will see what I see out of him. Best of luck and hopefully you’ll listen to more of his songs. Thanks for your time.
-Dave
Vince Wright
Dave,
Thank you for your thoughts and suggestion! I’ll consider it.
-Vince Wright
Jellyorigami
I understand what you’re saying but I think the point of this review was for the song not the artist. But you’re correct. For example, take Demi Lovato, she doesn’t really like make songs dedicated to God (not that I know of) but she does have some Biblical content and does sing for God sometimes.
Jellyorigami
On Spotify they put Let You Down as “Top Christian Presents…Best Christian & Gospel Music 2010s”. I’ve listened to this song in the past and I was so confused as firstly, this is a rather dark and negative song, second, this doesn’t have anything to do with God as supposed to the other songs on the list such as You Say by Lauren and Reckless Love by Cory Asbury.
Harrison Hasbrouck
I didn’t read all the comments to this song, but just based on your review, as others are saying, I think you missed the point of this song. The only way to understand this song in context is to watch the music video, in saying that you have to understand NF’s music as a whole and the story it follows. It actually has nothing to do with being in an abusive relationship. At first I thought the song was about his father, but it turns out he’s talking about himself as he is in most of his songs when he’s in some sort of battle. It’s an internal battle he is facing. I’m a big NF fan so this probably wasn’t even really worth reviewing contextually, but I like that you’re reviewing NF songs. Glad I found your website because I’ve been thinking a lot about the worship music we should and shouldn’t be playing in churches.
Vince Wright
Harrison,
Thank you for your comments!
He was talking about…himself? Interesting. If that’s what he intended, it did not translate well to me!
I’m still glad you like the site, despite my panned review of one of your favorite artists’ songs.
-Vince Wright
Evan
(new discoverer to the site) what no one has mentioned here is that, as far as I know what you describe as NG as saying negative things to another person, but the “you” in this is actually a grown more mature Nate talking down to his former self and specifically his fearful / depressed self. I feel like NF is a hard hard artist to critique cause it requires a full in depth listen of his discography to understand all of his characters to get the nuances of the characters he personifies in his music
AB
I am amazed at the lack of insight into what this song is actually about. Just because NF is a believer and does have songs pointing to God, he is secular. Why not nitpick Carrie Underwood’s songs about how they don’t align with God? This song is written to his parents. This man suffered as a child and now his artistry is being picked apart by someone who praises Bethel and Hillsong because his secular music doesn’t point to God. This site is ridiculous.
Vince Wright
AB,
Thank you for your critique! I’ll respond to your statements one at a time.
“I am amazed at the lack of insight into what this song is actually about.”
“This song is written to his parents. This man suffered as a child”
I’m not sure if you had a chance to examine my evaluation criteria, but I rate based on what the lyrics communicate and not on the artist’s intent. If the lyrics are meant to communicate abuse from his parents, then can you show me where it says that in the song? I didn’t see any of the usual indicators, such as “father”, dad”, or “pop”. Yes, bad experiences might have driven the lyrics, but that doesn’t mean the lyrics point to dad.
“Just because NF is a believer and does have songs pointing to God, he is secular.”
This is a statement about the artist (which I don’t understand) and has nothing to do with this review. In the context of this website, it doesn’t matter if NF is secular or not. Again, my reviews are about the lyrics and what they communicate.
“Why not nitpick Carrie Underwood’s songs about how they don’t align with God?”
Primarily, I do reviews based on user submissions. Songs are polled, with the top two receiving reviews. For more details, see Upcoming Reviews.
Also, when I started this website, I reviewed the top 100 Christian songs. Admittedly, I used the wrong list when I reviewed this song! I used the October 7th, 2017 chart instead of January 7th, 2018.
As of this comment, I haven’t reviewed Underwood’s music. However, I’m not opposed to it!
“…now his artistry is being picked apart by someone who praises Bethel and Hillsong because his secular music doesn’t point to God.”
I don’t nitpick his artistry and praise Bethel and Hillsong for their questionable theology. I nitpick his song Let You Down because it’s unbiblical and praise Bethel and Hillsong for lyrics that align with God’s Word. That’s what The Berean Test is about: “applying critical thinking skills to compare lyrical content from popular Christian artists against the Bible for accuracy.”
However, if you examine my Evaluation Criteria page, I stated,
“On the other hand, a low score does not necessarily mean that we should stop listening to a song. For example, a song may have high marks for its biblical accuracy, but a low score on outsider. This would be a great song to hear personally, but perhaps not one to share outside of Christian circles. Also, God can use anything, despite my own views and opinions on any song.”
For you, this might be such a song. Perhaps it ministers to you personally that this website cannot begin to uncover?
“This site is ridiculous.”
No comment.
-Vince Wright
K. Needs
I’m gonna be honest, it sounds like you could benefit from the message of songs like Therapy Session of NF, Thread of Light by Demon Hunter, and Caveman Jams by Project 86. God absolutely uses “negative” and “angry” music to reach people in their darkest places. I know because He did it for me when I was a teenager struggling to come to terms with childhood sexual abuse. Just because you don’t see the value in music that is raw, honest, and real about how tough life can be doesn’t mean there is no value and God does not use that for good.
Vince Wright
K. Needs,
Thank you for your comments!
If you’ve read my evaluation criteria page, then you should know that I agree with your point, that “just because you don’t see the value in music that is raw, honest, and real about how tough life can be doesn’t mean there is no value and God does not use that for good.”
I wrote the following on my evaluation criteria page, emphasis mine:
“…a low score does not necessarily mean that we should stop listening to a song. For example, a song may have high marks for its biblical accuracy, but a low score on outsider. This would be a great song to hear personally, but perhaps not one to share outside of Christian circles. Also, God can use anything, despite my own views and opinions on any song.”
-Vince Wright