One day, I will not start out every blog post with a statement about how I am taking too long to write these. That will be a great day, but today is not yet that day. Either way, this is my (Zach) post for February. I actually did have this post planned out back in February. It would’ve worked really well, too! This idea came to me from some pre-Valentine’s playlist I saw. It was a collection of love songs, all very cheesy and a bit too pop-ish for my tastes. Don’t get me wrong, I can definitely dig a good love song. I will say though that after having been in a relationship for nearly three years now, love songs can feel very, very cheesy. That being said, I feel like there is a market for break up songs that is either just as big, if not bigger than love songs. I’m going to compile a combination of both sets of songs, for whatever your romantic needs are (but definitely focus on the sad ones, because I feel that they have much more depth to them). Maybe I’ll color code love as red and break up as blue. That seems appropriate.

  1. I Want To Hold Your Hand – The Beatles. This song feels like any new relationship. It is happy, excited, and eager. I can appreciate the pure joy expressed at being around a person you have just formed a relationship with.
  2. Iris – The Goo Goo Dolls. Wow that hits you like a ton of bricks. “You’re the closet to heaven that I’ll ever be, and I don’t want to go home right now.” That’s a lyric that you’d just lay in bed staring at the ceiling for hours thinking about.
  3. Cocoon (explicit) – Catfish and the Bottlemen. If this isn’t the most indie start to a relationship ever, I don’t know what is. “Your friends all hated it, but f*** it if they talk, f*** if they try and get to us, because I’d rather go blind than let them get to us.” Jeez, go blind? For a new relationship? That’s some Romeo and Juliet style love right there (and I don’t mean romantic, I mean idiotic and masochistic). Maybe a break-up would be best…
  4. Cornerstone – Arctic Monkeys. As you would have heard in our Sheffield episode, Alex Turner is the best lyricist of this generation. I am so in love with his lyrics. This story he has created of attempting to see an ex within every woman he meets is so chilling. “But yes, you can call me anything you want” coming from his ex’s sister is how he ends it, and that might be a little cynical, but perhaps the point.
  5. Leave a Trace – Chvrches. This feels so much more like a breakup song written by a woman. Hear me out — I believe when it comes to relationships and breakups, women are far more level-headed. I don’t think you often see women doing stuff like texting their ex at 3 in the morning, etc. This song is powerful, Lauren Mayberry’s lyrics seems to be pushing this idea of not allowing herself to collapse, to make sure she doesn’t get swept away.
  6. Rivers and Roads – The Head and the Heart. “I miss your face like hell.” “Rivers and roads, till I reach you.” This song pours out emotion, with the harmonies of the group really creating a unifying feeling of sadness. There’s a certain togetherness that comes with breakups, and I feel that this really shows that. Plus I love The Head and the Heart. So there’s that.
  7. Me Enamora – Juanes. I just realized I was forgetting to put at least a few love songs on this list. Most of Juanes’ lyrics are usually pretty cheesy, and this is certainly no exception. Translated from Spanish, “There are so many things today that I’m liking about you, when you speak to me I fall in love with you”, isn’t exactly the deepest lyric. But who cares, if you’re in love, you don’t have to take the time to deeply analyze music.
  8. Always Take You Back – Night Terrors of 1927. “The weight of it all sinking in//All I have you took it away//I’ll always take you back.” While I’m not going to pretend like I know the lead singer Jarrod Gorbel, I did have a fun conversation a few years ago, so his pain speaks to me just a tiny bit more. I can only imagine how it is for the people actually close to the artists!
  9. Married With Children (explicit) – Oasis. This song is absolutely hilarious. “I hate the books you read and all your friends, your music’s sh*te and it keeps me up all night.” Noel Gallagher is perhaps the cheekiest songwriter I’ve ever listened to, and the fact that this semi-upbeat song is about the end of a relationship makes it all the better.
  10. Kahil Gibran – STRFKR. I’ll be honest here (but when aren’t I during these blog posts?). For being my favorite band (or at least one of), I’d say that for the most part I have no idea what STRFKR’s lyrics are about. But I think this one is a bit easier to figure out (if you can distinguish Joshua Hodge’s distorted voice). “Needles when I’m talking//Nothing feels the same here//Pull myself together”
  11. Coffee – Sylvan Esso. The dark yet whimsical nature of this song is very compelling. There is a numbness of sorts that sometimes follows breakups, and I feel that this song demonstrates that with lyrics like “Wrap me in your arms//I can’t feel it” and “The sentiment’s the same but the pair of feet change.”
  12. If You Wanna – The Vaccines. Probably my favorite breakup song. I think the first stanza “Well I don’t want to wake up in the morning//But I’ve got to face the day//That’s what all the friends I do not like as much as you say” is the ultimate post break up sentiment.

There you go. 3 love songs surrounded by 9 break up songs. Hmm…maybe I’ll mention in the title that the perfect ratio I have found is 3 breakup songs for every 1 love song. Yeah, I’ll do that. On a final note, I hope you all had a fantastic valentine’s day, and that you had more reason to listen to the songs in red than all those songs in blue.


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