Ocean Tisdall lays his heart bare on “Jealous”, the latest chapter in his Edinburgh-crafted breakup trilogy. Where “Making It Easy” offered closure with dignity, “Jealous” examines the messy aftermath: the visceral sting of watching someone sail through life whilst you’re stuck in emotional quicksand.
Written in April with producer Prentice, the track opens with sparse piano chords that mirror the hollowness of post-breakup limbo.
Tisdall’s vocal delivery drips with raw honesty as he processes a painful truth: his ex has moved on like flipping a switch, whilst he remains paralysed.
“Good for you, chewing your food while my clothes hang loose,” he sings, capturing that specific torture of physical deterioration whilst your former lover thrives.
The production stays deliberately minimal with piano creating space for Tisdall’s voice to carry the emotional weight.
But as the song progresses, it builds in intensity. His vocals rise with mounting frustration, transforming quiet resignation into something more urgent and desperate.
The crescendo mirrors the internal pressure of suppressed feelings finally demanding to be heard.
Lyrically, Tisdall tackles jealousy with refreshing self-awareness. Rather than villainising his ex, he turns the microscope inward: “Wish I could be cruel cruel like you / But I’m still too soft.”
The song’s most striking moment references Greyfriars Bobby, the Edinburgh terrier who spent 14 years sitting by his owner’s grave.
“I was a dog on a leash, you know I would have stayed / Stayed sat on your grave,” Tisdall admits, acknowledging his own tendency toward misplaced loyalty.
The bridge strips away any remaining pretence: “I hate how I sit here and wait by the phone / While you play with my life like it’s something you own.”
It’s uncomfortable in its accuracy, the kind of confession that makes you squirm because you’ve been there too.
What makes “Jealous” particularly interesting is Tisdall’s refusal to present jealousy as something shameful.
Instead, he examines it as a signal, an alarm bell pointing toward unmet needs and fractured self-worth. The song doesn’t offer easy answers or triumphant resolution. By the final chorus, he’s still jealous, still stuck. But there’s power in that admission.
This isn’t background music for getting over someone. It’s the soundtrack to those dawn moments when you’re doom-scrolling their social media, wondering how they’ve managed to carry on whilst you’re barely functioning.
Tisdall has created something achingly relatable: a ballad that sits with you in the darkness rather than rushing you toward the light.
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