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I hate everything about you//Three Days Grace//Three Days Grace//July 22nd 2003

You know how you have that one song by a certain band and you’re not really acquainted with much? This is the one of those songs, which I find to be quite synonymous with the song I discussed in my last post. However, this is more along the lines of being stuck in a toxic and argumentative relationship. Sometimes when we love someone, we overlook their flaws, but what happens when they stop loving you? Denial starts to sink in and in moments of clarity you are suddenly thrown into this Tartarus-like abyss, filling you up with emotions of resentment. It’s hard to understand how you can hate everything about someone and yet still managed to love them. It’s like when you try to rationalize what you feel but you fail because emotions can’t be quantified and there’s no way to understand how love and hate can co-exist.

What this song really manages to encapsulate is the passion which lies in the root of every relationship. How, this passion , can flit between being hate, love, lust or anything else. The rawness in the lead vocalist’s voice really adds to the entire aspect of the confusion which he sings about. I have always considered love and chaos to be quite synonymous with each other, which can be seen through the song. However, it’s not the love which poets write about, that causes chaos; it’s only lust that results in hate and so many energy. The vocalist is not in love and maybe if he understood that, he would  feel less angry of how he felt. Love is blind but it ultimately sees through the pretense and that’s why it’s a state of peace and  contentment, unlike what is being depicted here. This is perhaps an adolescent mistake to make, to muddle up anything that fills us up with a certain amount of passion. It’s this inability to differentiate that creates issues of anger, which has been effectively through his indecision.

I always reccomend this song as an effective break-up song because it really helps you clear you mind. It’s incredibly relatable to anyone who has been in a long term relationship; at an early age, the more years you have spent, the more repressed anger there might be. I believe that relationships can’t be stable without a certain maturity of mind and this may only arise with age and experience. This song incorporates a very matured guitar riff, which contrasts with the immature lyrics, perhaps making a juxtaposition between the mature concept of love and the immaturity of the people involved in the relationship. Not only is this a song about a dying relationship, you can listen to it when you’re in rage of any kind. I’ve always found this song to be an effective stress reliever because of the fast paced riff. Three Days Grace isn’t one of my favorite bands, but this song manages to put itself into a lot of my top five categories.

Slave to your mood swings.

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Remember Me Lover//Porcupine Tree//The Incident//September 14th 2009

When people ask me a song for a breakup, I’d never imagine that my top choice would a song named,”Remember Me Lover”. One would assume, from the title, to remember someone for all the good times, why else would you write a song about it? Although this song is far off from being of the punk rock genre, for me punk is about managing to make the listeners feel something, in the depth of their hearts. This song manages to fill me up with contrasting emotions of immense rage and reverence, due to the realistic manner in which a psychopathic person talks of his wrong-doings in a quite matter-of-fact manner. It’s kind of unnerving to hear a love that goes so terribly wrong, that the narrator thinks he was probably asleep through it.

Of course, I don’t believe one has to be psychotic to relate to this song because sometimes love destroys our ability to maintain a certain amount of civility. There is a fine line between love and hate, both include passion and one can transcend from emotion to another, without much difficulty. Perhaps, it’s something a person may ido out of spite, to someone they consider to be toxic in their life. I don’t know if I can effectively pen down what this song does to me, on a psychological level. I can literally feel my stomach churning with like anger and my brain just whizzing at the excellent use of music to create a deeper impact of the words. It starts off slow and peaceful, perhaps the way any kind of form of separation does, but slowly starts manifesting into something ugly and angry. We use rage as a form of letting go, demeaning everything about our significant other, allowing the ugly to blind side ourselves from the beauty.

This is a song like no other. The lack of pretension and sugar-coated words might strike one as  kind of heartless, and that’s what I perceived it as, until I began to pay closer attention to the song. The rawness of the emotions which are being expressed really make this one of my favorite songs, in terms of how divergent it is in terms of themes. The strong use of guitar in the bridge seems to symbolize the anger which was boiling, however it manages to calm down, again. However, this is not a song that talks about the stages of separation; it shows how relationships begin to unravel, how familiarity angers him, how differences are not being resolved, how words just seems to anger each other. Porcupine tree is quite an acquired taste, due to the depth in their lyricism and complexity in the instruments used. However, as I started to delve deeper into that music genre, i realised that the depth lacked pretense; it wasn’t forced, which made it even more authentic. I think we’ve all felt the need to make a choice between gracefully letting go or tormenting and destroying the person who did the same to us. Maybe what I appreciate is that the narrator had the strength to make a choice I never could.

Play your sad guitar.

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Superstar//Sonic Youth// If I Were a Carpenter//September 13th 1994

Although, this is a cover of a Carpenter’s song, I believe Sonic Youth have managed to raise much more emotions in me, rather than the latter. I remember the first time I heard this song, I was far too young to understand anything about the feelings which were being sung about, it was in the 2008 movie ‘Juno’. However, it had always stuck to me, because of the depth of the emotions that were resonating in the quiet and calm voice. As I got older, I began to understand the essence of the song and interpreted it as somewhat a ballad for a long lost love, that never really had the closure that it deserved. It is quite certain that the deepest and most meaningful romances never really end; they just cease to have a physical manifestation. It’s pushed deep into the corner of the mind because sometimes love doesn’t work out and, when you’re young, you don’t really know how to make it work.

One of the worst ways a love story can end is on hope, that one day when everything is calm, two people will be reunited because what they felt was beyond anything, anyone fathom. Maybe that’s what makes it all the more hard and maybe that’s why you always think that if your first love walked through their kitchen door, on a Sunday morning, with false promises, nothing would stop you from believing them and wrecking yourself, all over again. What makes this song sad is that, it’s evident, that the singer was still sittin, all alone, while the person they loved was out there, playing their music and having a great life. Isn’t it sickening, how love blinds people? How we have this person here, who has made their entire life revolve around the possibility that their lover might choose to come back? How can you make your entire life’s purpose be that you’ll sit around and wait for someone to fulfill a promise that they made probably because they are too weak to speak the truth? I guess this song went from making me feel profound to something more angry because I never understood the fine line between hopeful and foolish until I heard this song, recently. This isn’t hope, this is madness and stupidity and the inability to see that something has ended. 

I suppose it’s the soft melancholic acoustic Spanish guitar makes the theme of hope even more prevalent, with the soft fairy-tale style of narration. The sadness in the music and the lyrics really manages to entrap the listeners, because we’ve all felt that hope- the kind which we know has extinguished the moment it was created yet the idea of the hope keeps us going on and on. This is perhaps one of the only songs that I can listen to a hundred times and feel differently each time I hear it. Because you can hear a hundred ‘i love you’s, but there’s always that one which gets under our skin and makes us hopelessly insane. What I take from this is that, you can wait forever if that is what keeps you going but you can’t stop living and isolate yourself. You’ve got to continue to grow and whatever is meant for us, will come along in its own sweet time. I promise you, they do remember that they told you that they love you but now they don’t anymore, so maybe you should move on from their sad guitar and beautiful lies.

Don’t want to reach for me do you?

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The little things give you away//Linkin Park//Minutes to Midnight//May 11th 2007

Have you ever felt like you were a mere pawn for someone else to feel better about themselves? That you only existed in their lives as someone to be demeaned and messed around with? Linkin Park has always appealed to me, because of their ability to excel at making fast-paced and energetic songs, yet also touch m heart with their slow and melancholic songs. The idea of knowing we are being used, yet being okay with it, is something that always astounds me. We always preach self-love and the practice of letting go of anything that may be toxic to us; however, we cling onto our own poisons with everything we have. People say that holding on is a sign of strength, but can you imagine the courage required to let go of something you love, when you realise that it’s not meant for you?

The back story to this song is actually about the aftermath of the hurricane Katrina and George Bush’s late response to the people of Louisiana, thus making it song that manages to appeal to its listeners due to the high pathos element. The incredible guitar solo makes the song even more enigmatic, as one can create a parallelism between a hurricane and a toxic relationship. Recovering from both requires huge amounts of will power but it’s all about new beginnings. Not only does the incredible guitar solo make it stand out, but the drums have been used quite effectively to create an air of melancholy.  Some people are known to portray themselves as something greater than the sum of their parts, which may be a form of false advertising. Thus, the best way to judge someone is to see how they treat their inferior, not their equals. People say a lot of things because they know what will make you trust them and the problem with love is that, we always look for a reason to hold on. Despite all that may be against such a decision, we do it anyway because we are in a constant state of denial. As humans, we don’t realise we are making a mistake until after it is all over, and our emotions have been turned to dust.

Toxicity is inevitable. Sometimes we don’t understand the implications and unintentionally mess someone up but there are always those who do it quite purposefully. The phrase ‘little things give you away’, really sticks to me because I have always believed that the best way to judge someone is from the subtle mannerisms they have, instead of their outwardly portrayed behaviour. I think what you learn is that, you must learn to stop someone from controlling your life, till death. Let go of anything that impales you, irrespective of how much it mattered at some point of time. You can’t make someone, who treats you like nothing, your everything. Maybe Linkin Park meant for this song to be an anti-authority revolution, but I’ve always looked at it as a song that teaches you the gentle and graceful act of letting go.

See the pain that I have caused.

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Away In Silence//Creed//Full Circle//October 27th 2009

We could do anything to keep someone from staying. We’d be willing to beg and plead, to fall down to our knees and change ourselves in anyway that could keep the person we love, from leaving. I personally love this song because it helped me get through a time in my life, when I thought leaving was the most difficult thing in the whole world because of the manner in which it was being reacted to. The only thing worse than having a loved one walk away from you, is actually leaving the one person you wish you could be near, forever. Having been on both sides, I hate it and this song really gave me solace in a time when everything in my life seemed disrupted. I relate to the desperation in the voice of the singer because it’s not a sad or sick kind, but more a natural human instinct. In a certain moment, the way you feel, you’re never going to feel that exact way ever again and there’s nothing scarier and happier than that. I always look at this song as a farewell to a moment, as if we are doing are very best to feel a certain way because of how unprecedented and overwhelming it was.

Songs about reinstating faith in something that was thought to be lost, are always my favorite because they a very hopeful undertone. I believe that there is something quite beautiful yet terrifying in the idea of of getting something that you thought was never yours, in the first place. What I interpret this song as, is that the singer feels guilty because they pushed away their loved one, due to the fear that they would never have them. Thus, on realizing that the person felt the same way, the former is begging the latter, to come back because they have change from being a coward to someone who was ready to face their fears. Yes, it is quite a complicated concept but it’s safe to assume that we’ve all felt the fear of vulnerability and the all-consuming dread of rejection. It’s absolutely human to feel all this but because of our selfishness and single-minded behaviour, we do not take into consideration what other people might be feeling and we, therefore, act out in ways that may not seem conventional and later regret the manner in which we carried out an action.

However, what I would like to believe, is that in this ballad of love and forgiveness, one may always be forgiven for their insecurities and fears. We must never hold someone’s need to overthink against them because some people fear the passion and unfathomable width of their love, due to its unprecedented nature. Creed has managed to put forward their incredible lyricism, with a soft and melancholic undertone of instruments. I don’t believe a song  could express the paradoxical idea of how fear of loss may result in an actual loss. However, nothing is ever lost because love can never really end or begin; it just always exists and evolves with time. What you need to have is the strength to change and love someone unconditionally.

Letters meant to be sent have been torn.

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F- you Aurora//Alkaline Trio//Maybe I’ll catch fire//March 14th 2000

Death is something that is always a huge question mark, ir terms of how one must deal with it. Some people become sad, some become angry or some become indifferent because they feel both of the emotions. One of the reasons why I love this song so much is because the singer takes his rage out on the place where his friend died and curses it with the entirety of his heart. I think we all connect to the idea of having to put the blame on something or the other, so as to justify all the anger we actually feel about ourselves. It is quite evident that the reason why the singer blames Aurora is because he feels like he had some kind of incompleteness with his friend, perhaps someone he dearly loves but hadn’t really given enough attention to. I think we’ve all felt that sense of regret when we lose something forever and we realise that we never appreciated it as much as we should have,

Alkaline Trio has always been overshadowed by the likes of other mainstream bands such as Green day or Blink 182 but their incredibly powerful sound, with dark lyrics, makes them quite unprecedented. Instances such as calling the city a ‘cute grave digger’ is what really gets to me, because he realizes that despite his rage against the city, it was still a beautiful place. Carrying immense rage and hatred implies that we sometimes overlook everything that we ever loved about it, in the first place. We see that the singer blames himself for the death but realizes that somehow blaming the place where his friend died, would make more sense. There is nothing worse than losing that one person that you’ve held close to yourself. What is worse, is when you know that it was of no one’s fault and then you start blaming yourself because you think you could’ve done better. What also really sticks to me, as a listener, is the fear that has been instilled in the singer’s mind, as he refuses to ever drive the same car, that his friend crashed in. Their is an obvious romantic undertone to all this, as he talks about wirting letters and tearing them up or the uselessness of his ‘i love you’s and ‘i miss you’s. It’s sad that when something ends, we start to doubt everything about the authenticity of our feelings.

As someone who’s been to Aurora, I am not particularly fond of the memories there, either. I would like to believe that, I too, lost my friend in this place, metaphorically speaking and that is why this song connects to me on a personal level. Matt Skiba’s incredibly heartfelt lyrics genuinely make me hate that place and think about all the places that I’ve lost people in. Of course, I can’t imagine hating those places because they are too dear to me and perhaps like Matt Skiba, instead of blaming ourselves or some inanimate aspect attached to the memory, we should just learn from it. It’s important to understand that everything happens for a particular reason, whether or not we are aware of it. So please don’t blame yourself for the loss of your friend; it”s probably just Aurora.

 

I have a problem that I cannot explain.

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Roulette//System of a Down//Steal this Album!//November 26th 2002

Punk rock is all about disobeying authority, right? Well what better way to trash authority than to have a song that is literally ‘F- the system’. System of a Down have subsequently managed to create an amazing fusion of a very rock and metal sound with very abstract lyrics, almost punk. What I really enjoy about this song is how different it is from most SoaD songs, with its melancholy and, borderline, romantic feel. I think it manages to encapsulate the though process of most adolescents of our age. Perhaps it is the evolution or having seen people screwing themselves over their own expectations, we try to block out any possible feelings. In this process of suppression, when we finally come across genuine, we are quite unsure of how to express how we feel, out of the fear that we’ll be misunderstood or waved off as irrelevant.

One of the reasons why this song really touches me is because I’ve often been shut down for my absolute inability to decide. Therefore, listening to a song that says,”I know how I feel when I’m around you. I don’t know how I feel when I’m around you.”, I understand what they mean. It’s the constant struggle of never having the adequate words to describe one’s emotions to someone else. To always have to shut up because there is a constant nagging sensation that my feelings are not important enough. System of a Down is a band that usually puts together nonsensical words and phrases that seemingly tie together, if you try hard enough to understand, but with Roulette, I think I began to look at them in a different way.  The one time they are actually singing in complete sentences, is the time they are talking about how they have no idea how they feel and how the messages they have left are of no use. If there is something I have learnt in life, it is that, you cannot have a relationship or a friendship if the other person can’t understand your shortcomings. I think the song talks about someone who has feelings for someone but is incredibly worried about how they’ll react to one’s indecision regarding their emotions. Lot of people call indecision a decision in itself but that is too a simple an idea; indecision is about a sense of lack of competency, anxiety and feeling like when people realise all this about you, they will desert you.

When you look at the instruments used, it is quite striped down, with an acoustic guitar and violins. This furthermore creates a very melancholic feeling, presenting the sadness in the mind of the person. I have always been very appreciative of the volatility of Soad; you wouldn’t believe that the guys who wrote Chic n Stu or Johnny would be capable of writing something so soothing and beautiful. Another song that also has a melancholy feel to it is Lonely Day, exploring feelings of depression.  System of a Down has the best music if you’re having an incredibly bad day and if the people in your life are just giving you too much of a headache. They remind you don’t have to make sense to create an impact; that sometimes the most chaotic things can be the most long lasting. It’s okay if you don’t know how you feel because most of us don’t.

You make me laugh.

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Supersonic//Oasis//Definitely Maybe//29th August 1994

Ever heard of Wonderwall? Well these are the guys that gave the world that exceedingly heartfelt yet overplayed song. This song used to be something of a horror for me because ‘SuperSonic’ is something people have always teased me with and I was a little repulsed that one of my favorite songs was my namesake. Oasis has always been one of favorite bandoaisis2s, mostly because of their punk sound but without the usual tone of rage or disappointment. In this song, they have effectively delved into the themes of having a sense of individuality and expectations whilst presenting us with characters who are quite odd yet raw.

One of my favorite lines in this song is “You can have it all but how much do you want it?” because it makes me reevaluate the whole aspect of people making themselves vulnerable to someone, but only if they could know how much the latter really wanted all of the former. We tend to crave only the physical aspect of a person, that’s our fatal flaw as a human. So would you be willing to have all of a person, with all your heart or just for the sake of it, if you knew that there would be immense baggage? Although, I suppose they were talking in terms of gin and tonic, but the best part about Oasis is that when taken out of context, their lyrics are much deeper than it may seem. It is also interesting to note how we are presented with a ‘friend’ who is represented as a loner who is quite earnest to help. There is a certain tone of sadness as ‘no one hears him call’, as we see that his nature as a loner wasn’t by choice and perhaps nowoasis-1 he had become accustomed to it, since he had obviously chosen this life. I always relate this idea of chosen loneliness to a sense of disappointment with the world. However, it is quite unfortunate that regardless of such choices, we always wish for a certain escape from ourselves. Incidentally, they also talk about a certain ‘Elsa’ in the song, which is actually the name of a dog (thus she sniffs so much!) and I guess that’s how you know they’re punks. It also helps that Liam and Noel Gallagher are two of the most notoriously truthful musicians, dissing everything from Nirvana to new age music; and I’ve always believed that punk is about doing what you want.

I also enjoy how the guitar in the beginning of the song acts as a smooth way to introduce Liam Gallagher’s drawly voice. It’s the kind of song you’d listen to regardless of what you feel because it’s talk about everything. It’s about accepting a person who is oasis_documentaryunlikely to open up to anyone unless they felt like they could offer their 100% to that person, without any judgement. It’s about the lack of pretense in a relationship and understanding the other person without the involvement of a third party. And it’s also about drinking gin and tonic and being with someone for the simple reason that they make you smile. One of my favorite characteristics of Oasis is, that despite the rocky relationship between Liam Gallagher (the lead vocalist) and Noel Gallagher(lead guitarist). their music is incredible and completely separate from it. Wonderwall is perhaps one of their divergent songs; most of their songs are less romantic and focus on elements from life, about individuality, speaking one’s mind, forgetting anger or just being who we are. Supersonic manages to encapsulate all these elements with sheer elegance with a tinge of distortion . Oasis has taught me lot about life and, I’m sure, they could teach you too.

It started out with a kiss.

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Mr Brightside//The Killers//Hot Fuss//June 7th 2004

I don’t think there’s any definition for punk except doing something that noone else has and managing to impact a whole generation of people. This is one of the songs everyone’s heard a million times on the radio and maybe you don’t anything about who’s singing it but you definitely get the irresistible urge to sing along. I think why this song manages to stick is killersbecause of its relatable lyrics. We’ve all loved someone but had to see them with someone who doesn’t deserve their beauty or company. More often or not, we’ve felt jealousy that we are not entitled to feel, about scenarios that we make up in our own minds. I have always found the idea very intriguing. that we tend to be jealous about things that don’t really belong to us rather than something that actually does. The Killers are one of my favorite bands, but only because of their albums Hot Fuss and Sam’s Town.12304309_10154314898456840_1014804202220789869_o Their sound was unprecedented, with well-thought lyrics, Brandon Flower’s undeniably refined vocals and energy and the incredible blend of indie rock with post-punk revival. This song is probably one of the most iconic songs of the 21st century because in a time when  ‘pop-punk’ was beginning to less relevant, The Killers gave the world something new to love.

I think one of the reasons why I love this song is because it reminds me of a time of sadness, which I handled quite well. If there’s something that gives me strength it’s knowing that there will always be a song that makes me feel like I’m not the only one feeling all the things I am. Have you ever held onto something with all your heart and known that it’s not really yours to keep? Falling in love with s free spirit, a human who’s only commitment is to themselves and their beliefs. I guess we’re all a Mr Brightside at some pokillers-hotfussint of time, because there’s nothing more painful than watching the one you love, with someone else. To listen to them make melodies while you sit there solo. To see them smile at each other and knowing that you are incapable of ever being the reason for the same smile on his face. Jealousy has its way of turning saints into seas and I guess there’s nothing we can do except drown in the depths of the ocean of tears we make with our own hands.

There’s something about the opening guitar riff that tells a story of sadness in itself. Lot of people say that we bring sorrow upon ourselves by creating scenarios in our head but give me the name of one person who doesn’t overthink. Isn’t it the basic foundation of love to doubt everything we’ve ever felt prior to that? You think that the music playing is a sign that all the images in your head are just in your mind but then you find out there’s only as much you can do. It’s good that you’re coming out of the shell you’ve been and you can’t give anyone the power to make you feel bad about yourself, You have every right to feel the way you do.

Thought that I could make you whole.

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Goodbye Angels//Red Hot Chilli Peppers//Getaway//June 17th 2016

We all know these guys- they’re insane. They dance around with socks on their genitalia and make you feel like they come up with most of their lyrics when they’re stoned out of their mind. Goodbye Angels is one of the songs from their newest albums and is quite mature in comparison to most Rhcp songs (see Give it Ared-hot-chili-peppers-press-bw-2016-billboard-650-1548way or Can’t Stop). I love the theme of trying to save the one you love and having to watch them slowly degrade themselves. I have, personally, come to learn that love cannot save anyone, I mean we tend to think that true love is supposed to be some form of salvation and yearn to escape into it. However, that’s all love can be- an escape. Have you ever fallen in love with someone who is broken and lives in either misery or destroy their happiness with the pessimism that it will soon perish? Well if you have then this is the song for you and if you haven’t, maybe this song could give you a certain insight. Furthermore, the problem with falling in love with a damaged person, as Antony Kiedis says, you can never forget them.

We think we can save someone from themselves, by giving them all the love we have to offer, thinking it will somehow make up for whatever dissatisfaction they have in their hearts. If you try and read between the lines, this is a song about a lover who has accepted the broken nature of his beloved and is now merely eulogizing everything about her, still reproachful that he was unable to save her. Despite his accepting nature of her suicidal tendencies and depression, he schadsmithclinictill subtly tells her that the decision she is making, will  help her in no way. He is not aggressively trying to get her to change her decisions but is soothing and warm with his love. He offers to be her “friend to kiss you in the courtyard” because he knows that regardless of everything, he can never stop looking at her as if she were an angel. He keeps reassuringjoshhhher that he would do anything to save her or have her stay in his life, which I think is an integral aspect of dealing with sadness. A person with depression doesn’t need to listen to your advice regarding how to get rid of it; all they need to know is that they’re not alone in this and that as they throw themselves into an abyss, you’re still going to stand there with a torch and rope.

What makes this song even more ethereal is Josh Klinghoffer’s incredible ability as a guitarist , the evergreen bassist Flea and the slow and progressive drumming by Chad Smith. 039c3c4a0c3bee3e6af62fd32609d703 Klinghoffer’s back up vocals add an plaintive tinge to Kiedis’ more straightforward voice. I have to admit, I wasn’t very expectant of Klinghoffer fitting into the shoes of the incredible John Frusciante, but in this song he showcases his true abilities. The guitar solo at the end of the song takes my breath away, even after having listened to it multiple times. I think it’s this incredible blend of rock and funk which basically encapsulates everything the Chilli Peppers stand for. Maybe one day you’ll fall in love with someone’s broken heart and you’ll realize they are as beautiful as Kiedis makes it seem. It’s those sad souls that never see themselves for the beautiful souls they are and they have this incredible ability to love with everything they have or disregard everything they believe. They shut themselves out or open up like a magnificent flower. Perhaps, the worst/best part is that once you’re in, you have no out.