Decoding The LyricsAll The Shade Hailee Steinfeld Seemingly Threw At Niall Horan In Her New Album

“I Love Yous”

This song is all about being hurt after a breakup and not feeling ready to love again, and there are definitely a lot of clues that it’s about Niall.

“No more I love you’s / Until I’m OK / I blamed it on the time zones / I blamed it on my eyes closed / I blamed it on the world like it owes me / No more I love you’s / Until I’m OK,” the lyrics read.

Listeners quickly started to speculate that the “time zones” line was a reference to the One Direction singer, since he lives in London and Hailee lives in Los Angeles.

“I think when we get into certain situations we sort of make excuses or we look to whatever we can to sort of take the blame away from ourselves when we know what’s right and we know what’s wrong,” Hailee told MTV Australia about the line. “It’s that head versus heart thing, where your mind is telling you one thing and your heart is telling you another. What you want is not what you need or what you should have. It’s like when you know that stuff, you blame it on all of these elements that could be to blame but not really.”

She also explained to V Magazine, “The ultimate message behind that song is realizing the importance of making a decision for yourself and sticking with it. I think when we experience pain or heartbreak we’ll look for something to distract us from that. I mean, I have in the past, anyways. I finally got to a point where I was like, I just need to regain my sense of self here.”

“Your Name Hurts”

“Your Name Hurts” is also about an ugly breakup, and boy, is it intense!

“Wouldn’t say that I regret you / But man, I wish I never met you / That your mama never even had you / Every single letter’s killing me / Don’t know why it always gets to me / Every time I hear that sound,” Hailee sings in the new track. “Your name hurts / I don’t say it no more / It’s like the worst of words / You don’t even know / Feels like burnin’ on my lips / The ones that you used to kiss / No way you ain’t feelin’ it too / I hope my name hurts, my name hurts / My name hurts you.”

The “Starving” songstress has yet to divulge any info on who it’s about, but she did open up about the track to Pop Crave. She explained to them, “When something just sort of ends without coming to a proper ending, you feel like there’s a part of you missing. And it’s so hard to regain composure and focus and stability when something in your life that was so huge is just gone.”

“There’s always that period of time right after a breakup where a name – that word that used to make you the happiest girl, no matter where you are in the world, if someone said that person’s name would light you up inside and bring the biggest smile to your face — and it suddenly becomes something that stings and it hurts. It just hits different,” she added.

“End This (L.O.V.E.)”

Although she didn’t say who this song is about, Hailee certainly threw tons of shade towards one of her ex-boyfriends in “End This (L.O.V.E.).”

“L is for the way you lied to me / O is I’m the only one who sees that / V, you’re so vindictive, so I’ll be vicious / And E-N-D this L-O-V-E,” the lyrics read. “Every time I’m back at this bar, pour a little salt on my scars / Man, you really pulled me apart, like a toy you’d play with / Boy, you got away with murder, and you took it one step further / Still feel all the twists and the turns of the ride in my mind that you took me on / No one’s ever messed me up like you did / Thanks to you, babe, now I know what love is.”

“I figured if we take ‘love’ and have it stand for everything love is not, that would be a cool twist,” Hailee spilled about the track to Pop Crave.

“Man Up”

Hailee sent a pretty strong message to her ex in “Man Up.” It’s unclear who it’s about, but she even accused the unnamed former flame of cheating on her in the lyrics!

“I think it’s cute that / Look me in the eyes, won’t do that / Six knives in my back / Tell me why you would do that (Do that) / Sun goes down, different phase / Didn’t think I’d learn her name / Gave you every bit of trust / I just can’t believe you’d abuse that,” the brunette beauty sings. “Little boy, won’t you man up? / All of these tantrums / They won’t win me back, love / Just be a man, love / And I don’t mean society’s version / I just mean be a better person / For once, man up.”

“‘Man Up’ is actually based off of a conversation I had with my dad,” Hailee shared. “I called him while I was on the road and I was going through this situation, and the words ‘man up’ came out of my dad’s mouth, in reference to the person that I was in the situation with. I was like, ‘D**n, there’s so much truth to that but also so much light and humor.'”

“Wrong Direction”

Fans were quick to assume that “Wrong Direction” was inspired by Hailee’s relationship with Niall, based off the name of the song and the name of his band. And in the lyrics to this one, she seemingly alleged that he wasn’t faithful to her.

“Lookin’ back, I probably should have known / But I just wanted to believe that you were out sleepin’ alone / Loved me with your worst intentions / Didn’t even stop to question,” the lyrics to the the power ballad read. “Every time you burned me down / Don’t know how for a moment it felt like heaven / Loved me with your worst intentions / Painted us a happy ending.”

Yeah, Hailee certainly did not hold back on this EP!