I'm gonna listen to and post some of my favourite songs and a bit about them today since I have to do monotonous chores and it breaks things up a little.
To me this is the quintessential break-up song. There's a plethora of songs about how much everybody misses their lost love and about the melodramatic phases of a difficult break-up covering a wide array of emotions and sentiments. That stuff is all fine, but rarely does it go beyond that to the point where all is said and done.
Once it's out of your system and it's apparent that this thing is really going to happen and can't be prevented, there's a different kind of emotion in play. It's a sort of numbness after all the pain, heart-ache, rage and sadness. It's not that you don't care for the person anymore, it's that you don't care about caring. It's been burnt out of you and there's just this bitter-sweet almost cynical acceptance that shit happens, generally from both parties.
This song taps that portion of the break-up. It's already over, and there's nothing we can do about it. It's a cynical look back with which comes a sort of acceptance, the final phase before moving on. I can't think of many songs that capture this emotion, and none as well as Breakfast at Tiffany's. If you're ever at that point, have a listen. There's something uplifting about it, telling you that it's about time you moved on.
It's the only song I know by Deep Blue Something and I'm tempted one day to check out more because it's a nice song that's incredibly catchy, instantly recognisable and bitingly clever in its content.
Still on the subject of misery in relationships, but with a much more hard-hitting and tragic element. This song is for anybody who is stuck in a relationship that is difficult or abusive but despite the hard-ships, they carry on with some poor illusion that things will get better. In the case of the song, it's almost like there's solace in the problems and the constant emotional turmoil. It's crushingly sad, but often it's nice to listen to sad music that resonates with your own experience. There's solace in the fact that you're not alone in feeling this stuff, and it can be shared with anybody who feels emotional when listening to this song.
What I like about Many of Horror is that it's song from the perspective of a man. When it comes to abuse in relationships, men are very often the culprits in media. Domestic abuse by men is awful, but it's only one side of things. It gets showcased often in a media which still likes to portray women as innocent damsels in distress, an archaic viewpoint. The reverse is still a common element in society and there's little to nothing said about it generally. In many cases it won't be physical abuse (though this does happen) because the physiology of women is such that it's more difficult for them to have the upper hand physically. We turn then to emotional abuse, not seen as being anywhere near as scarring or damaging as physical abuse but it can destroy people if left unchecked over a period of time.
This does happen a lot, and it's nice to get a song that connects with that. I always see this song as a shout out to anybody who has been in that situation, and I've been around people who have. It's a very difficult issue because men are not meant to be seen as emotionally inferior and thus it can be hard to find support. Most will just simply carry on the illusion that nothing is even wrong, which is also something I kind of get from these lyrics.
That's not to say that you can't reverse the situation and envision this song as being from the perspective from a woman in a similar situation. That I think is one of the great things about it. It's not gender specific, but I still think it's nice to have a male vocalist perform it because it's a nice change from the norm with this subject matter.
There are covers of this song that are quite well known and not particularly bad in and of themselves, but the Biffy Clyro original version is by far my favourite. I love the way the song starts out so simple, with a very basic plucked melody and builds and builds into this almost orchestral cacophony as the singer's pain erupts from him and materialises. The slow build up to an explosive finish is one of my personal favourite techniques in song-writing and this captures it perfectly in both the pace and the drama of the final chorus.
