10th
One Break-Up Song and Some Others (put together by bmichael)
- “No Children” by The Mountain Goats
The difference between #1 and #2 is much vaster than the difference between #2 and #100. You know? “No Children” is the perfect break-up song, and the most powerful. There really aren’t even any other break-up songs in existence, because once you stack any other song beside it, its deficiencies—lacks heart, too on the nose, not descriptive enough, not bitter enough, sounds stupid—the deficiencies are magnified to such an extent that the song may as well be the wedding song of your un-torn heart because it’s evocative of nothing more than springtime, romance, stuffed animals, the beach. “No Children” makes every other song sound cheerful and nice is what you should take away is what I’m saying. I’m not even going to bother numbering the rest, because their ordination doesn’t even merit numeration. I’m just going to mention a few other songs to make this a list.
“Dry” by PJ Harvey
Dry is one of those songs that a guy for instance should not really like. (I suppose in that vein, Rid of Me is an album that a guy should not like.) But the song is not a gendered thing, even though the song is about vaginal dryness. The strength of the song is its madcap blues torrent and ripped-up songs. I suppose it would add a dimension to the song, to really identify with what Polly J Harvey’s actually flailing about wailing about. But then again who hasn’t felt spiritually desiccated.“Graceland” by Paul Simon
This is a cheerful-sounding song about being spiritually devastated, I think. It’s at least about recognizing the vast array of spiritual devastation all around us. It let’s us know in beautifully unequivocal terms, to quote David Wallace, that our endless and impossible journey toward home is in fact our home.“Horses” by Palace
You may see, perhaps, that I have a tendency towards rangy, mangy, shaggy songs. I do. “Horses” is that beautifully messy song that asserts through its form the sorts of feelings you’re likely to feel when you don’t feel so well. The guitar solo, especially.“New Partner” by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
This song is perhaps close to “No Children” in some ways. They have a similar sound. But it’s too complex of a song to be a real world-beater type break-up song. But it’s one of the best songs about what actually happens when you break up. Unfortunately, the greatest break-up songs are like an imago, an unsubtle, rail-straight subconscious archetype that reinforces our self-sense rightness even as it prevents us from repeated our wrongs. As well, this is one of the most certifiably gorgeous songs in existence.“The Past is a Grotesque Animal” by of Montreal
(Don’t forget that’s a lower-case “o.”) This song’s pretty on the nose, but remember what it was like the first time you heard it? That was pretty awesome in the old sense.“I Am Trying To Break Your Heart” by Wilco
I believe I’ve stated before that I tend to use this one a lot on pre-romantic mix tapes. That’s what Freud called the death drive. This is another song that’s got all the best parts, and it also starts to converge, asymptote-like, upon the ideal of the break-up song. But, again, there’s something about it that’s still pretty romantic, and that lingering sense of optimism—while perfectly isomorphic with an actual, real break-up—serves to undermine it in a more clinical setting.“Gemini (Birthday Song)” by Why?
I love this song. It’s about traveling and being away from the person you love. And there’s an oral sex line, and a pretty neat observation about bathrooms. I’m a gemini. I tend to listen to this song when I’m in a good mood as well as a bad mood. I’m not sure, narratively, that it’s a break-up song, specifically. But it’s got that sort of feeling around it.“Dancing On My Own” by Robyn
This is a new-comer to the break-up song canon. It does a good job of sprucing up its juvenile aspirations and giving itself an edgy European Cinéma vérité feeling. It’s simultaneously childish and very adult. That situates it toward the temporal edge of the relationship since both the beginning and the end are like that.“The Glow, Pt. 2” by The Microphones
This is seriously the best song ever. It’s got aspects of many of the songs above. It was released—and I consumed it—during a time that largely concerns in my life the overwrought, self-important/constantly-wounded sort of feeling you get, the raw nerve sensuality of being a sophomore in college. You’re so very very very stupid. But this song, I think, transcends that fairly well. It might not be for everyone, but for it’s exactly particularly for the people who love it. Just like you.
