Sweet Delusion – Mike Taveira
By Korie Houston
“Always want what I can’t have. Don’t know where I learned that. We can talk all night, slow dancing, through your mansion, but I know it can’t get that deep”
I talk a lot about the highs and lows of connection. About when the music reminds you of that addiction you feel from constant yearning, of when you wanted someone so badly that a part of you kept waiting. It’s easy to talk about moving on but the action is hard when your brain is fighting with your heart (or in some cases your hole) but I digress. Mike Taveira’s new single encompasses that feeling of a desire that we all know isn’t good for you.
“Stay in the moment. Casually hoping, I’m who you think about. But I’m just a night to you, a new set of hands to you.”
I reconnected with someone earlier this year (I know 2026 just started), who had a chokehold on my emotions before last summer. For the sake of this story we’ll just call him J. It was intense and I didn’t realize how easy it would be to fall back into this pattern. But the reality is I never was nor will ever be the one he chooses. The irony of it all is I started this year hoping that I could stick to my boundaries as referenced in my last piece.
“Call me your friend, get it again, hit it again. Say I’m the best you’ve ever had, then run back to him”
Raise your hand if you’ve been the first phone call after someone is going through a break up. Now raise your hand if that call was from a person that you were involved with. You know, then, the perception of friendship while someone simultaneously toys with the emotions you feel. Mike’s song reminded me of the fantasies we create to convince ourselves of comfort even when we know it’s not what we’re looking for.
“You’re not who I thought. But I stay patient. Cause every now and then, I feel you leaning in”
A consistent theme in his music is searching for something in the darkness under the club lights, and it’s something a lot of us can relate to. In my case I find that darkness in other people, thinking maybe together we can find that light. But falling for love within the lies isn’t a game, it’s a coping mechanism. The beauty of growing is to become more discerning. A lot of the people we meet aren’t truthfully who we thought they are — sometimes it’s a facade or just one version of a lesson to learn. J was never who I thought he was.
“I keep it light, sleep on the right side of your bed. I say I’m fine but really I’m screaming in my head”
The expression “fool me once shame on you, but fool me twice…” has played out a lot in my life. That heart on the sleeve mentality means sometimes I want to see the best in people. Before I reconnected with J, someone once told me to not fall for the potential of what a person could be. So despite all those moments shared in the past, looking back there was always that inevitably it would end the same way.
“Out of my head inside of you. No trace of him here in this room”
Mike interpolates lyrics from his other single Hit and Run.mp3 which details his experiences navigating heartbreak and lust, that creates this relatability of how we all live in a state of altered reality at times to justify the choices we make. Whether it’s for the sake of love or sex, that euphoria comes with a price. In my case I remembered the lows that J put me through just for his own emotional gratification. I let it happen too many times to not take culpability. Think of it like an emotional hit and run.
“I’ll let you do it time and again. My sweet delusion”
No matter how much I wanted it, I was a million steps out of reach for something real. But I always answered that phone call, and that was a deluded sense of hope that he would be different. Sweet Delusion is a sobering reality for my experiences with heartbreak.