With “Kid with a Dad Bod” from MAKE BELIEVE LOVE, the lyrics convey a comedic yet truthful description of a life trapped between youth and adulthood. With Make Believe Love’s simplistic depictions of life’s failure and personal doubts, the message conveyed portrays how life in middle age can develop, should things not have turned out as planned.

The lyrics of “Kid with a Dad Bod” show how young or young-at-heart artists, despite age, can incorporate the realities of life in the lyrics of their songs, regardless of who the audience may be, providing messages that fit all demographics: the poor, the wealthy, the young, the not so young, and so forth.

The song incorporates self-awareness to great effect. “Make Believe Love” is about a body that doesn’t conform to the ideal of yesteryear, but the real content of the lyrics is emotional, not physical. Discussion about dieting and exercise and various health fads illustrates someone who is struggling to deal with the externals while not changing the deeper issues. This strikes a very contemporary note about someone who may be living in a sea of recommendations and fix-it solutions that rarely work.

Arrested development is a big theme on the lyrics. Make Believe Love is a character who is still a child but is obviously living in a world for adulst. Nothing is stable, there is no future, and there is no sense of control. The way the lyrics move, addressing money issues, a lack of opportunity, and a lack of adulthood, is a list of minor complaints, but they add up. Each piece, on its own, is nothing special, but together they paint a picture.

The effectiveness of the lyrics is that they have both self-criticism and kindness clsed into them. Make Believe Love is very frank when it comes to admitting faults, laziness, and poor habits, but there is no meanness in them at all. The attitude is more like a shrug and a smile over the whole thing. Even when the lyrics are talking about embarrassment or failure, there is a sense of embrace involved here.

The constant theme of being young and exhausted at the same time is an important one throughout the lyrics. “Make Believe Love” is all about this weird experience of loving the same kind of music, humor, and comfort from one’s younger years but recognizing that time has passed nonetheless. The tension between these two things is where the humor is to be found. The impulse to hold on to things that feel outdated and uncool is instead an assertion against being forced to grow up a certain way.

An integral component of song lyrics is the portrayal of mental health issues. Throwing Make Believe Love refers to therapy, pills, and burning out in a very casual manner. It is interesting how these references are treated as if they are a part of everyday life, and not serious issues. It is this blend of humor and honesty that gives this song its great impact.

The other thing that this song does is play with the concept of self-image. Make Believe Love is a description of judging oneself for being what one is, as well as being judged for it by others and by the part of oneself that used to have higher aspirations. The lyrics of this song put this judgment into a kind of cartoon form that removes its sting. 

Taken together, the lyrics of “Kid with a Dad Bod” work so well because they manage to be both very specific and very general, very particular and very universal, all at once. “Make Believe Love” gets down to very particular, very straightforward details in order to put a narrative out there about middle age, one that lots of us might recognize but wouldn’t dare speak aloud, and yet this particular narrative doesn’t supply solutions, lessons, or answers: it supplies consolation through honesty and through humor.