MUSICinsideU: Can't Remember To Forget You

by Benjamin O'Loughlin

Experience: Shakira and Rihanna sing about love when things go wrong, when you've been let down... but you still love. You can't forget... and you don't know if you can forgive. You don't want to leave. But maybe you should...

Music Video: Like the single artwork, the video itself goes heavily lesbian, with the camera focusing almost exclusively on Shakira and Rihanna showing a lot of skin... together. And that's unfortunate, because the visuals - some of them no more than up close twerking so up close that all you can see is writhing butt - achieves a huge disconnect with the very real experience that the lyrics allude to, and that a lot more people could have identified with. The message of the song itself gets totally lost in the music video.

Meaning of Can't Remember To Forget You: You're in love but want out. You want out, but can't bring yourself to do. Shakira and Rihanna mock the fact that you can't let go, but with a bitter edge: there's nothing funny about the experience they're getting at. Two sounds sum up it up. An inicial, self-mocking circus touch quickly breaks down into an edgy, troubled beat somewhere between urban and jungle. It would be easy to forgive and forget. But there are things that can't be forgotten. When your love - or even just a friend - lets you down, only you can save that relationship... or let it go. The dilemma: just follow along, or break it off. Where can you find the willpower to let go of someone you shouldn't love? How far can forgiveness go?

Ask Yourself: What's the difference between love and captivity?

LYRICS:

[Shakira]

I left a note on my bedpost

Said not to repeat

Yesterday's mistakes

What I tend to do

When it comes to you

I see only the good

Selective memory

The way you make me feel, yeah

Gotta hold on me

I've never met someone so different

Oh here we go

You're a part of me now

You're a part of me

So where you go I follow, follow, follow

Oh, oh, oooh, oh

I can't remember to forget you

Oh, oh, oooh, oh

I keep forgetting I should let you go

But when you look at me

The only memory is us kissing in the moonlight

Oh, oh, oooh, oh

I can't remember to forget you

[Rihanna]

I go back again

Fall off the train

Land in his bed

Repeat yesterday's mistakes

What I'm trying to say is not to forget

You see only the good, selective memory

The way he makes me feel like

The way he makes me feel

I never seem to act so stupid

Oh here we go

You're a part of me now

You're a part of me

So where he goes I follow

[Chorus]

Oh, oh, oooh, oh

I can't remember to forget you

Oh, oh, oooh, oh

I keep forgetting I should let you go

But when you look at me

The only memory is us kissing in the moonlight

Oh, oh, oooh, oh

I can't remember to forget you

I rob and I kill to keep him with me

I'd do anything for that boy

I'd give my last dime to hold him tonight

I'd do anything for that boy

I rob and I kill to keep him with me

I'd do anything for that boy

I'd give my last dime to hold him tonight

I'd do anything for that boy

Oh, oh, oooh, oh

I can't remember to forget you

Oh, oh, oooh, oh

I keep forgetting I should let you go

But when you look at me

The only memory is us kissing in the moonlight

Oh, oh, oooh, oh

I can't remember to forget you

But when you look at me

The only memory is us kissing in the moonlight

Oh, oh, oooh, oh

I can't remember to forget you

Can't Remember To Forget You - Shakira ft. Rihanna