Anti-Love Song VIII: You’re Breaking My Heart Sat. Sep 22nd, 07

Here’s Mr. Salk’s nice addition to the anti-love song library we’re building here at the fates.

You’re Breaking My Heart.mp3 by Harry Nilsson.

I dig the 70s grove of this number. And it’s hard not to enjoy the lyrics. Here’s a handful from the beginning:

You’re breakin’ my heart
You’re tearing it apart so fuck you

All I want to do is have a good time now I’m blue
You won’t boogaloo,
Run down to Tramps, have a dance or two, ooohhh
You’re breakin’ my heart,
You’re tearing it apart but fuck you

Sometimes the most appropriate & efficient use of words to express a succinct moment or feeling (the great thing is you can give it any context you need) is the pairing of the words “fuck” and “you” to create the phrase “Fuck You.” 

Anti-Love Song VII: Stop Breathin Tue. Sep 18th, 07

Just in case you might have taken my offering of an anti-love song antidote as a signal of the end of my researching anti-love songs, I thought I’d let you all know I’m still digging around for anti-love songs. Here’s one of the more brutal ones I’ve come across.

Stop Breathin’.mp3, by Pavement, is an interesting expression of a bitterly despairing stance against love. The focal point of this expression can swiftly be found in the chorus: “Stop breathin….stop breathin, breathing for me now.” This swipe at existence can be taken at least two distinct ways—at least by my reckoning. I can hear it being said to inform the other person (the lover I presume) to stop breathing for their sake—as in stop living and breathing for me now and find some other reason because I’m out the door. I can also hear it being said in the more grave sense of, “stop breathing, stop living, for my sake, now. Yes, go ahead and die.”

Of course, I’d be misleading you to intimate that this song is solely an anti-love song. Malkmus leans towards a poetic minutiae style of lyricism and this allows him to zero in on particular details that seem obscured because the listeners don’t really know the context of the stories, or emotions, or instances that Malkmus describes in his songs, but somehow this obscured effect works to produced interesting, enjoyable lyrics (most of the time). I mention this because I have no idea what he is referring to when he sings, “Write it on a postcard, ‘Dad they broke me….,’” but I find it pretty moving, you know, as song lyrics go. And I think the instrumental climax that closes the song is pretty cool, if you forgive it’s potential for cliché in the build up. I dig it. I like how Pavement often used a primarily clean guitar sound to produce something unexpected.

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Tags: pavement, mp3, anti-love song, anti-love, malkmus

Don’t Fri. Aug 24th, 07

A Brief Story About A Little mp3 Who Became An Antidote

Don’t.mp3

An Opaque Introduction
Have you heard this? Ah, well, if you haven’t, then I’m quite charmed to be able to offer it to you—perhaps as a gesture, as a we near the end of summer, to the desperate exercise of failing flowers, for the sentiment in the song is like flowers continually perishing: always lovely to enjoy, but already dead.
Okay. Apologies for the flowery language. And apologies for the cynicism. I’m not really anti-love. I’m really not an embittered cynic. Not every day at least.

The Anti-Love Antidote
In fact, that’s why I’m offering this song under the anti-love song category. This song is like a little antidote you can take, and, judging by the number of people that find The Fates via the search term “anti-love songs,” I think offering an antidote is the only humane thing to do. It will clear your eyes and allow you a moment to make sure you haven’t to severely steeled yourself against sweet feelings and haven’t permanently closeted your heart.

How Do You Know If The Antidote Works?
You’ll know the antidote has worked and you’re in the clear, for now at least, if you can see the beauty & the possibility of the feelings expressed in this song; if you can let yourself believe, if only for a moment, that it is possible for you; and if you can allow yourself to briefly entertain the idea that feeling strongly for someone again would be good, especially if it means you can hold her hand, make her laugh, and kiss her neck—if you can momentarily experience one of these with the beauty of this song, particularly Seu Jorge’s gorgeous voice, then the antidote has worked and all hope is not lost. If none this makes any sense, then consider the line, “Don’t leave my embrace, for here in my heart is your place.” If you think it would nice to hear your lover say that earnest plea as she reaches out to you from a hammock in the shade on a lovely August day, or if you think it would be nice to express it to your lover in your own particular romantic style, then, for the time being, you’re in the clear.

Shirking Responsibility In The Fine Print
Mind you, don’t blame me and die of despair if this antidote doesn’t work. Not all prescriptions work for all people. Sometimes you have to really search around for the right antidote. It can take a while too. Just be patient. Hope Springs Eternal. At least that’s what I tell myself.

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Tags: SeuJorge, Anti-Love Songs, Love Songs, Love, anti-love antidote

Love Nothing Mon. Feb 12th, 07

Take It easy (Love Nothing).mp3

It’s not a stretch to believe that this song is an anthem for those searching for anti-love sentiments. And it’s hard to imagine a better song in the modern era that offers an “honest” recommendation for free love—free love not in a hippie “everyone loves each other” way either, but free love as in “I loathe myself and would like to take out my loathing of existence on myself.” That’s what the lines, “I do as I please; I lie through my teeth; someone might get hurt, but it won’t be me; I should probably feel cheap, but I’ll just feel free and a little bit empty,” intimate. And, of course, the singer sings it to convince himself that he believes it, not to celebrate it—though it may feel like a reason to celebrate, depending on one’s mood.
The set up for the “love nothing” sentiment is disappointment, let down, a defied expectation. As in, “Wow, this is starting off so well,” but then it’s suddenly, “I laid back down and wrapped myself in the sheet” and “Once something dies, you can’t make it live.”
The anti-love sentiment of the song is most concisely put (besides in the title) in the line, “Since then I’ve been so good at vanishing,” because in love there is, amongst a host of other things, a prerequisite for presence, and, if one is hiding (or vanishing) from oneself or another, then love is no longer love, but instead just an excuse to pass the time with another person, without necessarily seeing anyone.
I think the crushing closing is worth a mention for its supremely anti-love sentiments, “I will trap you in a song, tied to a melody, and I’ll keep you there so you can’t bother me.” Bonus points for abstract, yet concrete, and highly imaginative imagery, right?
Alright, now hum along, all you haters.

technorati tags:mp3, Bright Eyes, Anti-Love, Love, Valentine’s Day

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It Hurts to be Alone Sun. Feb 11th, 07

It Hurts to be Alone.mp3

It would be difficult for me to overstate the power, beauty, soul, and genius of this song. When I first heard it, I was sent reeling with the thought that music THIS good existed, and I hadn’t heard it yet (How much more goodness like this might exist? It’s almost a cause for hope). I wonder, will it make you feel the same way?

From the opening guitar riff, this song had me. And when the singer (who I think is Rita Marley) comes in with, “After he breaks your heart,” I feel like lying down every time. It baffles me how effortlessly the song reaches the bridge, a fantastic middle eight, by 1:17, but I know I need the lovingly reflective guitar solo by then. And right before the bridge she smacks every haughty listener with, “Just because you think that you’re so smart . . .”—almost making the bridge a genuine necessity, to allow for a little recovery time.
And just in case you hadn’t gotten enough, she comes back in, “After he breaks your heart, then you’ll be sad . . . then you’ll know how it hurts to be alone.”
This song is a paragon of economic construction, with not an excessive moment in it—the writers (Bob & the Wailers) seem to understand that nothing more need be said and that anything more would probably be unbearably painful.
I shared this song with at a dinner party a few weeks ago, and within seconds of the song’s beginning the room had quieted down and at its close it was played again, by request.

I can’t quite decide if this is an anti-love song or a love song. I suppose it’s a bit of both. But if you’re in the ecstasy of love right now (and I hear a few of you are), it might not be the right song, but you should still download it and save it for later, just in case. And if you think you’re going to have a lonely-hearts-club-band kind of a Valentine’s Day, then this song might be perfect for you.

technorati tags:Love songs, anti-love songs, Valentine’s Day, Bob Marley & The Wailers, mp3

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THE Anti-Love Song? Wed. Feb 7th, 07

I promise that I’ll get off the this anti-love song kick soon and quit being a spoiler, but I do enjoy the challenge of hunting them out in my head and music collection.
This anti-love song may be the best I’ve known—and I’ve known it for over 12 years.

Icicle Love.mp3

This song is by an extremely unknown little “band” that hails(ed) from the show-me state of Misery. Its name is (was) NC. When there is occasion to reconvene, it is now often referred to as The NC Club. But this all just a preface. Now, to the song.

Well, the production is nonexistent, and it seems as if the notion of production hadn’t even occurred to the artists involved—this isn’t a gloriously “lo-fi” production; this is an “I’m glad we didn’t run out of space on the cassette tape” production. And if you were hoping to find consummate musicians on this most anti of anti-love songs, then you’d be left wanting—the guitarist plays with such earnestness that you can almost see him smile when he doesn’t fuck up. But if you were hoping for a minute deconstruction of love in the modern age where the bible belt decides the fate of all and love is supposed to be the solution to everything, well this song might make your year.

More Anti-Love Songs Sun. Feb 4th, 07

You know, I’ve been piecing together little playlists that would fit each mood that might be associated with the approaching “holiday” and then trying to pick which songs are the best on each playlist, and I think I might post some of them, but I really enjoy searching out the anti-love songs because I think they’re kind of hard to pin down.
Here’s another two I think fit in quite nicely.

The first is by Whiskeytown, and it is their afore mentioned Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight.mp3. As an anti-love song, it tackles the subject head on with a nice dose of honesty and a complete lack of irony—I really like how the twang adds to the earnestness because sometimes a straight face is best. And I mean, if you’re headed down the path of love, you might as well name names, and say you’re just getting ready to break your own heart. Well, you’d say that if you were in a cynical mood, and that’s kind of the whole point of anti-love songs, right?

Well, perhaps not. The next anti-love song, On Your Own.mp3, by The Verve, doesn’t have cynicism as its impetus, but instead replaces it with a “high-minded” despair. It’s a great anti-love song because the longing Ashcroft expresses is unabashedly honest, “Hi, I have a great void in my life, will you fill it?” I don’t think that sentiment could ever be confused with love, at least not by a sober person. It’s also anti-love in its very title because being on your own is certainly a sentiment all those who are in an anti-love mood cling to, as in, “Hey man, you’re alone in this world, and you’d better get use to it.” BTW, I think the opening line of the song, “Tell me what you’ve seen. Was it a dream? Was I in it?” is a pick-up line in a class of its own, and it perfectly fits the despairing anti-love-I-need-love tone of this song — I do have a hunch, however, that it wasn’t intended to be an anti-love song, but, well, “Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.”

technorati tags:Whiskeytown, The Verve, mp3, Valentine’s Day, Love songs, anti-love songs

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Anti-Love Songs Thu. Feb 1st, 07

Now that February is here, Valentine’s Day looms ahead. I know that some of us eagerly await its arrival, some of us are indifferent, and some of us, well, loathe the very thought of it. With this in mind, I thought I’d dig up some songs that span the gauntlet. But I need some help.
Who among the faithful Fates readers can help me out with anti-love songs? I can only think of a few of them. I think it’s actually a pretty difficult category to fill. First let me set up the parameters of an anti-love song. This is probably most easily done by saying what an anti-love song isn’t: an anti-love song isn’t simply a tragic song; it isn’t simply a sad love song; it isn’t simply an angry love song; and isn’t simply a bitter love song. An anti-love song may have these elements, but it must also have something more. Are we in agreement with this?

One of the best and most subtle anti-love songs is one by the famed Welsh band Catatonia. The song, dead from the waist down.mp3, is anti-love in the gentlest way possible: it simply removes the concept; instead of “Make love not war,” it’s “Make hay not war.” I love that. Love haunts the song in nearly every line, but always in a twisted way: “Victory is empty,” Mathews cheerily sings to us, and she then reminds us that, “there are lessons in defeat.” The song expresses its anti-love sentiment in such a sweet-tempered manner that listeners may not even notice that it’s an anti-love song until several listens.
At a hotel I once worked, we had to put up stockings for the holidays, and these stockings were behind the desk, but in plain view of the customers. I wrote on my stocking (with a silver glitter pen) “Make hay not war.” And my boss thought it was a little too political—I think the Iraq war was just getting started. I looked at him dumbfounded and replied, “But I wasn’t even thinking about war, I’m just brokenhearted.” He replied, with a voice so full of awkwardness that it was slightly rewarding, “Oh, well, could you change your stocking?” I acquiesced—I mean, if you don’t get it, then I guess, sometimes, you just don’t get it.

So what anti-love songs can you offer up?

technorati tags:catatonia, Love songs, anti-love songs, Valentine’s Day

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