She wields the latter to excellent effect in the frequently downloaded “Unstable,” a not-so-thinly veiled recollection of her days playing keytar in the dance-rock outfit Cobra Starship, with whom she toured extensively. (That track is so beloved by Jordana’s legion of online fans that a handful have gone so far as to create YouTube videos to accompany it.)
Not that Jordana is a one-note gal. “Sweet Rosalyn” is a contemporary “I lied on the stand for you, baby” torch song, and “Young Love” is a balls-out alt-rock classic in the making. Equally at home performing pop, new wave, hip-hop, rock, disco and various combinations thereof, she’s also skilled in piano, guitar, the aforementioned keytar and a host of electronic music-making tools.
And she knows how to pick collaborators. She’s recorded with up-and-comer Secondhand Serenade and written with Colby Odonis (“What You Got”), currently signed to Akon’s Konvict Music, as well as *NSYNC’s JC Chasez and The Summer Obsession’s Lucien “Luke Skywalker” Walker. Skywalker is a particularly apt partner, as evidenced by his rhyming on “Nymphomaniac” and “Unstable.” “Madonna was my idol growing up,” Jordana volunteers, “partly because she always collaborated with such great people.”
Another influence, The Beatles, inspired Jordana to add guitar to her repertoire. “I started taking piano lessons when I was four,” she says. “But then I fell in love with the Beatles. I went from singing their songs to wanting to play their songs – on guitar. I thought guitar was the cooler instrument.” She remembers seeing and being “all over” Sade, Whitney Houston and New Kids on the Block, but it was Debbie Gibson who really inspired her. “I was drawn to her,” she confirms. “I thought I was just like her because she sang pop music and she wrote her own material, and I was writing songs just like hers.”
Jordana’s first composition, written when she was seven, was about a lost dog named Chessie who was wondering around the ranch where she and her family vacationed. She recalls, tongue firmly in cheek: “It had two chords, D minor and A. It was sad but still poppy, with a monster hook. And it had that great chorus lyric: ‘I love Chessie.’”
Come middle school, Jordana tried to put together a band. “But I was the only one who took it seriously, so I was forced to become a solo artist,” she says. Her efforts paid off in high school when she was asked repeatedly to write songs for the school musical. “That was my reason to live,” she insists.
Raised in Old Bridge, N.J., Jordana lit out for New York City at 17. She fell in with Queen Latifah’s Flavor Unit crowd, and eventually found herself in a studio with Wyclef Jean, who encouraged her musical ambitions, and, of all people, Tom Jones. During these vagabond days, she occasionally found herself homeless, which she’d remedy by spending the night at Penn Station or couch-surfing, i.e. “meeting people at clubs and staying with them for as long as they’d have me.”
Clubs were also fertile ground for performing, employment and gathering ideas. A stint as a go-go dancer was particularly instructive. “I loved the music,” she says. “I’d hear it in my head after I left the club and it would inspire all these melodies. By the time I got home, songs would be pouring out of me.”
It was also at a club that she met Cobra Starship frontman Gabriel Saporta, whom she’d seen perform years before. She marched up to him and, after very little preamble, said, “I should sing in your band.” “Of course he said, ‘I’m singing,’” she relates. “So I said, ‘I can play any instrument in that band; what do you want me to play?’ And that’s how I ended up in Cobra Starship playing keytar.”
Her tenure in the band saw her sharing stages with Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco, Gym Class Heroes, 30 Seconds to Mars and Jack’s Mannequin, among others. She also appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” playing “Bring It,” Cobra Starship’s contribution to the Snakes on a Plane soundtrack.
In 2007 her membership in the group was revoked, about which Jordana remains philosophical. “Gabe gave me a huge break,” she says, “and he really inspired me. Being in that band was an important experience for me. I’d watch Gabe onstage every night, and it just made me want to write and sing and do my own thing.”
Her own thing took a giant leap forward after an afternoon of playing Guitar Hero with a seven-year-old. He subsequently turned her on to the recording program GarageBand. “I bought a Mac that day,” she says, “and started playing around on GarageBand. I recorded a bunch of songs” – some of which feature her dog barking in the background – “and put them up on MySpace, and all of a sudden people were contacting me and telling me how much they liked my music.” Music-industry types began sniffing around not long afterward.
Jordana, meanwhile, is well on her way to amassing enough material for an album, with “Nymphomaniac” likely its first single. This would surely please the commentator who recently opined on the music site www.threeimaginarygirls.com: “If you … have spent the last several years lamenting the dearth of upper-middle-class suburban wink-wink hip-hop song recasting, you will dance the dance of joy when your ears are massaged by the songs ‘Nymphomaniac’ and ‘Barbados.’”
Speaking of the dance of joy, Jordana declares: “A lot of people complain about where music’s going these days, but I like it. I love progressive, innovative, crazy dance music and I hear interesting stuff like that all the time. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and neither do I.”
You're In Love
Elisa Jordana Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I feel like I could fly
I'm up against the corner
My heart's in the sky
I'm looking at you
And I feel I could die
You've got me in love
Up on your wall
You drive in your car
You blast all my songs
You know all the words
And you're singing along
I've got you in love
You're so in love
You're so in love
You see me a lot
But it's never enough;
Cuz you're so in love
You say you like me
I'm innocent
Didn't you know
It's too late for that
I'm gonna hurt you way to bad
But I'm so in love
You call me up
You wanna see me much more
I don't have the time
You show up at me door
You say you believe in me
And you call me a star
Cuz you're so in love
You're so in love
You're so in love
You see me a lot
But it's never enough;
Cuz you're so in love
You're so in love
You're so in love
This song is about the intense emotions of love and how it can completely consume a person. The lyrics express the desperation and helplessness that comes with being in love with someone who may not feel the same way. The singer talks about how the person they are in love with has become the center of their world, and they feel like they could fly just by being close to them. They are willing to do anything for this person, even if it means hurting them in the end.
The high-energy tone of the song matches the sudden rush of emotions that come with falling in love. There is an upbeat melody and tempo that adds to the song's energy and captures the excitement and adrenaline that often comes with new love.
Overall, "You're In Love" is a relatable song that captures the intense and chaotic feelings that come with love.
Line by Line Meaning
I want you so bad
I have a strong desire for you
I feel like I could fly
My emotions for you are so powerful, I feel invincible
I'm up against the corner
I feel trapped and overwhelmed by my feelings for you
My heart's in the sky
I am ecstatic and overjoyed because of you
I'm looking at you
I am staring at you adoringly
And I feel I could die
My love for you is so intense, it feels like it could kill me
You've got me in love
You have made me fall in love with you
You've got my picture
You appreciate and admire me so much that you have a picture of me
Up on your wall
You prominently display my picture in a place where you can see it often
You drive in your car
You listen to my music while you are driving
You blast all my songs
You play my music loudly and with enthusiasm
You know all the words
You have memorized all the lyrics to my songs
And you're singing along
You enthusiastically sing along when you listen to my music
I've got you in love
I have made you fall in love with me
You're so in love
You are deeply and passionately in love
You see me a lot
You spend a significant amount of time with me
But it's never enough;
You always want more time with me
Cuz you're so in love
Your love for me is so strong that it consumes you
You say you like me
You express your fondness for me
I'm innocent
I may seem harmless, but I could end up hurting you
Didn't you know
I thought you were aware of the risks of being in love with me
It's too late for that
It's already too late to turn back on our relationship
I'm gonna hurt you way to bad
I know deep down that I will end up causing you a lot of emotional pain
But I'm so in love
Despite the risks, my love for you is too strong to ignore
You call me up
You contact me by phone
You wanna see me much more
You desire to spend more time with me
I don't have the time
I am too busy to accommodate your desire to see me more
You show up at me door
You unexpectedly appear at my door
You say you believe in me
You have faith in my abilities and talents
And you call me a star
You regard me as a talented and noteworthy person
You're so in love
Your love for me is all-consuming
You're so in love
Your love for me is all-consuming
Contributed by Sarah I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.