Culprit Number 2: The Script
Remember my discussion about Kelly and her way of dealing with breakups? ...Getting really pissed off and writing a bunch of angry songs about how great she is without her loser ex? Well, The Script is the polar opposite.
Most people only know The Script's famous singles, like "The Man Who Can't Be Moved," "Breakeven (Falling To Pieces)," and "For the First Time." I'd say I'm a solid The Script fan, and trust me, they've got so many great songs on their two albums, the first being self-titled, and the second, Science and Faith. They are a great band and I can listen to every song on repeat, especially the beautiful voice of Danny O'Donoghue--but, like Kelly, this band has got a huge obsession with the breakup songs. Only, unlike Kelly, whoever is writing these songs is having a hell of a time moving on, and it's getting to the point where it's getting dangerous.
(But c'mon--who can break up with Danny--he's such a looker! With an Irish accent!)
So with two albums comprising 21 songs, I have labeled a whopping 9 as breakup songs. That's nearly fifty percent!
#1- "Breakeven (Falling to Pieces)"
Probably the band's most popular single--I got so sick of it the spring and summer of 2010 because it was sooo overplayed. But just look at the title of the song--he is falling to pieces! As I said, dangerous. He's still alive but barely breathing...He's got time while she got freedom...
But you know, he says that she finally met a man who's gonna put her first...so apparently he was an asshole. So are we supposed to pity him?? He's flippin' out, all choked up...and she's okay. This guy sounds a little mental, honestly.
#2- "If You See Kay"
I just discovered this song the other day, actually. I never liked it because the first twenty seconds are weird, so I would always hit skip, but after listening to it, it's been on repeat for days. Alas though, another song about this guy freaking out that his girl left and he just doesn't know what to do and is searching all over her. Apparently he didn't say enough to her, "and he won the battle but lost the war"...again, leading me to believe that he was an asshole. But he's running around asking all his friends to tell her that he loves her, he wants her back, and he doesn't know what he's gonna do without her. She was torn between what she wanted and what she needed, and if you love someone, you gotta let them go. Again, are we supposed to pity the guy, or is he just super needy?
#3- "The Man Who Can't Be Moved"
This is the song that got The Script famous in the US, I think. For me, this song got me obsessed and it was in my top five most played for years until I finally got sick of it. Again though, another song about this guy who lost his girl, and it's turned dangerous. He's gonna stand on the street, defy the police, scare fellow passerby, brave the weather, and wait for this girl to come see him..."if one day she wakes up and finds that she's missing him..." This guy's got "a big hole in his world." GIVE ME A BREAK! Don't you have a job?! And honestly, waiting on the street for this girl...indefinitely...is just kind of creepy.
#4- "Before the Worst"
This was the first song I ever heard by this band after iTunes offered it as the free single of the week back in 2008. This song is a bit more ambiguous on whether or not they've broken up yet. It's obvious though, that together or apart, this guy and girl are not doing well right now. He wants to go back before it all went wrong, "before the worst." This pair was apparently ready to take on the world with their love, but shit happened, and now either their relationship sucks and he wants to go back to when it was good, or they just broke up and he also wants to go back to when it was good.
#5- "Exit Wounds"
This song is a bit too emo for my taste, and he's comparing the pain of his breakup to wounds that need to be treated in a hospital...sounds too much like New Moon. This girl left him and he seems to be suffering a lot-- the marks of battle, he still feels raw, a million pieces on the floor. But now he's getting a little self-pitying, saying he's got baggage and he drinks the pills. Wow. Dangerous again, but at least this time he's asking if anyone can help him with these exit wounds, rather than being reckless. He says he doesn't know how much more his heart can take...I wonder if this is referring to the four breakups he went through on the first album.
#6- "Dead Man Walking"
The ultimate paranoia song. This guy is now freaking out that he and his girl are gonna break up, while he's still with her!!! He's holding her hand but she's barely holding on... He's "already broken, already knows she's moving on...already knows there's someone in his place." An inevitable breakup or paranoia?
#7- "Long Gone and Moved On"
The title of this song explains it all. It seems to have been quite a long time since he and this girl split up, but he's having a much harder time dealing with it than she is, considering she's already with some other guy. But this song at least resolves strongly--he's decided he's gonna change the way he feels and he's finally gonna move on too!
#8- "If You Ever Come Back"
Again, another title-explanatory song. He's watching his girl leave with her suitcase, standing on the tracks...yet he is still hopeful! He's hoping she'll come back, "that she could give him the cold shoulder again, that she could still give him a hard time, that he could still wish it was over." It seems they were fighting quite a bit (a common theme?) and she finally threw in the towel...but he wants to go back to that. Again, he's being dangerous though, because he's leaving his door unlatched--anyone could come in and take his stuff!!!! I do like hope, though...
#9- "Nothing"
This is the band's newest single, so I'm sure you've heard it on the radio if you listen to the top 40 stations. In this song, our protagonist has lost that hope of song #8. His friends took him to the bar and he got drunk. He can't stop calling this girl with whom he just broke up, but she says nothing. He's now "shouting her name all over town"...again causing a ruckus all over town...but he's gotta let her know "that he's still in love with all of her."
Alright. If you stayed with me this long, I greatly appreciate it. It means a lot when people think that my thoughts are interesting. Maybe one day I can break 100 followers on Twitter! But I digress...
What have we learned from The Script? Well, there's a good chance that this guy is a huge asshole. Why else have nine girls left him? And in a lot of the songs, he admitted that he fucked up, but now he's sorry about it. I'm not going to place the blame entirely on him, though. In many of these songs, it seems he's learned what he did wrong, but then there's a new song and he's dealing with yet another breakup! He seems to be one of those people who always needs to be in a relationship, believing themselves nothing without a partner. I hate those people. That's where my girl Kelly takes the cake. She tries the relationship and realizes she doesn't need anyone trying to hold her down, and she's stronger from what she's learned in her relationships that failed. Don't get me wrong--I'm not at all against relationships, but I'm against relationships that form for the wrong reasons and that don't help you grow. If you're in a relationship just for the hell of it, and it's not doing anything for you, don't be in one! And if you're in a relationship that sucks, don't be in that one either! But unlike The Script, take a lesson from Kelly instead, and become stronger from it and figure out what you learned about yourself and what you want out of a relationship--don't wander around the streets or just sit in your house because you just can't even move on without the other person and don't know how you're even going to live now.
The purpose of this post though isn't to shit on The Script. As I said, they're one of my favorite bands, and yes, some of their songs get a little whiny after a while when you're really considering the lyrics, but what I appreciate about the protagonist of their songs is that he really understands that love isn't all rainbows and puppies and strawberries. Sometimes love is rain without the bows, and wolves, and Brusels sprouts. One minute you could be infinitely happy and in a split second that happiness shifts to sorrow or anger or hurt. You've gotta grow from those whom you love--friends, family, significant others--and without struggles and conflict, you'll never discover yourself.
I leave you with a final song from The Script, called "This = Love." This one is one of their more (relatively) uplifting songs, stating that "love is why we do it, love is worth the pain, love is why we fall down and get back up again."
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