Michael Hatchett an A&E Edi
tor for the Voice, can be reached
I love music. Music helps me get in touch with my emotions. Valentine’s Day is a big emotional day for a lot of people, in the sense that they suddenly feel the crushing weight of loneliness that they fear will follow them to the ends of the earth. One of the best genres of music to listen to while feeling that melancholic misery is pop-punk/emo revival. I could spend some time explaining what specifically I mean by “emo revival” but I figure that y’all have Google and you’d rather just know what cool tunes that I think you should listen to. I’m just kidding. No one wants to know what I think.
“Your Graduation” by Modern Baseball
Think about one of your exes, particularly which ever one’s breakup left you the most sad. I bet you wonder if they miss you. Maybe you’ve even asked them. Maybe they’ve said no. This classic Modern Baseball tune gives you a chance to stand up, open your mouth and yell at the person who tore your heart in two: “Bullshit, you fuckin’ miss me!” You’re mad that they’re on your mind as often as they are but you’re also confident enough in yourself to know that you aren’t the only one who messed everything up. Now you’re finally ready to let them go.
“Medal of Honor” by You Blew It!
You Blew It!’s name alone is already a perfect summation of pretty much all of my failed romantic encounters, but this excellent cut off of their 2012 album Grow Up, Dude (another title that relates to my past relationships) fits a different theme. You know when you’re involved with someone and they’re actually just into you because they just want someone to be into them? Lead singer Tanner Jones knows that feel, which you can hear as he belts the chorus “I’m not a fucking trophy/but to you I might as well have been.” This song also gets bonus points for featuring one of my favorite lyrics of all time, which is, “We’re outside of an awkward Christmas party/To suffer shades of parting.”
“Embracing Facts” by Into It. Over It.
Some people (namely the writers of the film Love Actually) believe that Christmas is the holiday where you tell the truth to one another. I’m not sure where this notion came from, but I think Valentine’s Day is actually the day where you tell the truth, at least to yourself. That’s why I chose “Embracing Facts” because it relates to the theme of single people everywhere embracing the fact that they are currently alone (which is not a bad thing at all). But it wouldn’t be a great emo song if it didn’t have a healthy amount of self-loathing in it.
This song starts with a killer drumbeat that slowly builds and builds as Evan Weiss starts yelling in distorted vocals “How the hell could I have been so dumb?/As an outspoken man with a well-sharpened tongue/I sorta thought I’d start to change with age/But I just stayed the same.” Tell me that doesn’t get you right in the hearstrings. The genius of this song is that despite its self-loathing, Weiss makes you actually feel better about your life even if you have a “past full of mistakes that you can’t take back.”