Prompt: Three songs you are connecting with right now.
It’s rare for my song obsessions to fully coincide with what’s happening in my life. Usually, they have more to do with (for lack of a better word) fantasies, or sometimes a song hits me because it’s catchy and it brings up a memory of something I felt in the past. So, I’m going to try to do one of each of those eventualities.
Current feelings: “Girl Can’t Help It” Journey
Gah, this song. Granted, the feelings of the two characters here are mutual, just largely unspoken while in my situation, the feelings just weren’t mutual. The guy I love(d?) moved recently to find himself or whatever. It hurt when he left, and I still miss him. I sometimes wish that I had been enough for him, but I’ve also been realizing that I need more than he could have given me.
Most relateable line: “The girl can’t help it, she needs more/He hasn’t found what he’s looking for.” I feel this is largely self explanatory given what I’ve already said.
Past feelings: “I’m a Mess” Ed Sheeran
The quintessential post-break up song when you didn’t want to break up. Worse, you didn’t want it, and still don’t want it, despite how awful everything was. It’s that torrent of emotion: of feeling like you shouldn’t want to be with this person, but you do.
Most relateable line: “Oh I’m a mess right now, inside out/Searching for a sweet surrender, but this is not the end.” I must admit, this line is getting me not because of the lost romance angle, but just because I feel like my life is chaos at the moment while I’m trying to figure out what to do with myself, but I know I’ll work it out.
Fantasy: “Lifting Shadows off a Dream” Dream Theater
No one seems to be able to agree what this song means. It’s heavily metaphorical, and apparently, John Myung (the bassist, who also wrote the lyrics for this one) didn’t particularly want to talk about it beyond saying that it is about “The duality between a man and a woman and how they can compliment each other.”
Most relateable line: “Lifting shadows off a dream once broken/She can turn a drop of water into an ocean.” It can describe anything that was thought lost and is now regained. Also can describe how people tend to make mountains out of molehills; at least, I’m guessing that’s what is meant by the drop of water/ocean thing. Makes me very hopeful for cleaning up the messiness and uncertainty I’m in right now.
It’s kind of hard to find songs with lyrics that I really connect with. There’s lots of songs that I can belt out (I just sang “Honey, Honey” by ABBA at the bar the other night) but I don’t often find myself thinking “Wow, that’s my life right now.” Of course, that could just be me trying too hard.
Also, there are too many songs about relationships. I mean, all three of the ones I listed have to do with relationships (mostly ending) but the lines that I really connect with hit me precisely because they could be describing something else.
While relationships and romance and all that jazz are pretty universal, I think there are definitely other human conditions that are far more relateable, just without the inherent singability.
But then, I’m not a musician, so what do I know?
Strictly (Personal) Business 