I mentioned Christina Perri on this blog before because I am so enamoured with her single Jar of Hearts. Whence I gathered my senses after absorbing that immense track, I searched other songs from her, and I was impressed by some including today’s track Human. It was recorded for her second studio album Head or Heart and her third top 40 entry on the Billboard 100. Her voice continues to stun me and give me goosebumps when she raises the Octave, just like in this song. Christina is just a wonderful talent and I’ve seen her music in live videos, and she definitely replicates and at time supersedes her studio output. Anyone that can write Jar of Hearts – one of the greatest post 2000 ballads IMHO is a ‘natural’ in my book.
I can hold my breath
I can bite my tongue
I can stay awake for days if that’s what you want
Be your number one
I can fake a smile
I can force a laugh
I can dance and play the part if that’s what you ask
Give you all I am
Human was written at the end of a long session of song-writing, and originally Perri wasn’t sure if the song would be in the album because she felt it was too personal, but because of the positive reactions to the song, she decided to put in the album and chose it as the lead single. The verses find Perri musing the things she would do for love, yet as she sings in the chorus, “I’m only human / And I bleed when I fall down‘. I really admire the confessional nature of the lyrics.
Like Jar of Hearts, Human is largely built around a piano melody and showcases Perri’s voice. There is a good audience version of this song live in Brazil – of all places! The studio version below features Perri as a robot sitting in a white room, with close-ups of the mechanics working inside of her body. As she begins to move, various body parts are shown to be bionic. Towards the end of the video, Perri begins to transform from a machine into a human as sparks fall behind her.
References:
1. Human (Christina Perri song) – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
A beautiful, anthemic and emotionally-wrought song.
It is Christina. Listen to the first 2 minutes of her ‘Back in Time’. We are talking the best here.