Songs That Make Me Feel: Good Kisser

Artist: Lake Street Dive

Song: Good Kisser

Album: Free Yourself Up, 2018

Click here to the song listen on Youtube

“If you’re gonna tell them everything

Tell ‘em I’m a good kisser

Tell ‘em all the things you told me

In your desperate whisper

If you’re gonna tell them everything

Don’t leave out the good part

Tell ‘em the way that you broke my heart”


The quoted sentiment from the chorus of this song could be acted out in a real bitter manner to match the action that prompted this song as a reaction.  

I believe this is about a man cheating on his lover with the singer.  The three parties involved in a cheating scenario, view and experience it very differently.  The cheater is at fault, to blame, there is no excuse.  The cheater is selfish and pain is his game.  He is a liar.  The partner being cheated on is purely a victim.  Not in the know, they are lied to and their physical health is jeopardized if the cheater isn’t having safe cheater sex.  The partner in the dark is lied to from the middle of the relationship, whereas the singer is lied to from the onset.  The singer (paramour, extramarital broad, side piece?) is also a victim of the cheater.  Their sunny disposition of a new lover, a new lease on life, the birds are singing for me because I am in love!, is under evil pretense.  There is no future because there is no present.  The singer’s heart is broken as the line goes.  

The cheater when caught or cornered may recoil and react in a number of ways.   The song posits that the cheater opted to point the blame finger at the singer.  Perhaps he’d say, “she [the singer] took advantage of me” or “I was drunk and you know how she [the singer] is.”  The cheater is spilling the beans, throwing the singer under the bus.  Dear Cheater, this is not how you get back in the good graces of anyone with self-worth.  You cheat, you hit the ro-ad, Jack.  The singer’s ironic appeal of “If you’re going to throw me under the bus also tell them what a beautiful speed bump I made, how I make the ride more enjoyable naturally, and am a joy to service.”  

The cheater professed his love in [his] desperate whisper.  Since we’re spilling the tea here, the singer reminds him to go ahead and include the other private details that were used in his seduction of her, or was it all a lie?  Give the GD details not the revisionist history.

As a person who is also a good kisser, I’d be grateful if anyone who has been a recipient of my mouth prowess would shout loud about my skill set.  The singer is like, spilling the beans is unnecessary because they are good beans and they come with cheese, crema, cilantro, and mf-ing gold!  You are hungry, aren’t you, Cheater?  Don’t waste food.    

After it all [she] stood up tall, [she] kept her mouth shut so [he] wouldn’t fall, the song continues.  Sometimes quiet is the way to be even if you think screaming from a mountain top, a soap box, or in song (ironically) would feel great.  If there was a road to recovery maybe it is only through humility, apology, moving to a new city, donating your body to science. 

I could be reading it all wrong, of course.  Maybe the entire story is a regular ‘ole relationship ending on a not so mutual note and the non-singing partner is slangin’ mud just to make himself feel better or look better to a shared friend group which is still pathetic.  

She’s a good kisser.  Try focusing on the positive, dude.  Great song.  

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Songs That Make Me Feel: Mistakes