Not Our Fault
Thomas Geelens · Pop
Reviewed 2026-02-24
The Roast
“"It's not our fault that they were stuck inside their heads." Let me be honest: this song is about something real. Growing up with parents who fought, smiling in photos while everything burned behind the frame — that's a universal wound and Thomas taps into it. The problem? He wrote a therapy affirmation, not a song. "It's not your fault" repeated over a pop beat is what happens when you process genuine trauma through a songwriting template. The bridge admits "I can't save you" which is the most honest line here, but the outro immediately undermines it by chanting "you can do it" twelve times like a motivational TikTok.”
Sally's not done with you yet.
Drop a URL, screenshot, or file and Sally will give you the honest truth.
The Bright Side
"Mom and dad they are fighting but they're smiling in the frame" is a devastating line. It's specific, visual, and heartbreaking. If you wrote the whole song at that level, this would be a 8+.
Hardest Sneer
“Your outro sounds like a life coach who charges by the affirmation.”
Think your work can survive this?
Drop a URL, screenshot, or file and Sally will give you the honest truth.
Issues (5)
"I'll Take the Bullets from Your Soul" — Metaphor Overload
Receipt
"Take my hand and don't look back / I'll take the bullets from your soul / and leave 'em right here on the floor" — Thomas, you're not a surgeon and this isn't an action movie. "Bullets from your soul" is the kind of overwrought metaphor that sounds profound in the shower but falls apart under any scrutiny. How does one take bullets from a soul? And then just... leave them on the floor? Is someone going to clean those up?
Fix
Ground the metaphor in something real. "I'll hold the weight you've been carrying" is less dramatic but actually makes sense. Or better yet, show the healing instead of describing it in cinematic metaphors. What does it actually look like when you help someone through this?
The "You Can Do It" Outro Killed Your Own Message
Receipt
"You can do it / you can do it / you can do it / on your own" repeated FOUR TIMES, then "doesn't mean you are alone" twice. That's fourteen lines of the same six words. The bridge just said "I can't save you, you gotta do this on your own." That was powerful. And then you turned it into a spinning class motivational chant. All the emotional weight you built — gone.
Fix
End on the bridge's energy. "I can't save you / I just hope that you know" is a far more powerful ending than twelve rounds of "you can do it." Trust your audience to get the message without being beaten over the head with it.
"It's Not in Our Control" — Passive Acceptance Disguised as Healing
Receipt
"It's not our fault that they were stuck inside their heads / and all the things that they said / it's not in our control" — The message is that your parents' dysfunction isn't your fault. That's true and important. But "it's not in our control" as a resolution is just... giving up? Where's the reclamation? Where's the part where you choose differently?
Fix
Add a final chorus variation where the perspective shifts from "it's not in our control" to "but THIS is in our control" — the choice to break the cycle, to be different. Right now the song ends on acceptance. It should end on agency.
"No Calm After the Storm" — Flipping a Cliché Without Adding Value
Receipt
"You get frozen in your role / no calm after the storm" — Inverting "the calm after the storm" would work if you explored what that looks like. But you just state it and move on. It's a subverted cliché with no follow-through. You flipped the pancake but forgot to cook the other side.
Fix
Show us what "no calm after the storm" actually feels like. The hypervigilance. The flinching at raised voices. The inability to relax in your own home. One specific image is worth more than a hundred inverted idioms.
Verse 2 Is Four Lines and Then You Gave Up
Receipt
"I know it hurts to really grow / when fear is all you know / you get frozen in your role / no calm after the storm" — That's your entire verse 2. Four lines for a topic this deep? Growing up in a dysfunctional home could fill an album. You gave it a paragraph. Meanwhile, "you can do it" gets twelve lines in the outro. The priorities here are upside down.
Fix
Give verse 2 the space verse 1 got. Describe what being "frozen in your role" actually looked like. Were you the peacekeeper? The invisible child? The one who kept score? Get specific. This topic deserves more than a haiku.