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List Addicts Fridays : It’s Over When It’s Over

by Cris


by
Cris





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They say, songs are a great way to express what you’re feeling and that there’s always a song for any given situation. Take that one episode of Glee for example – the one about ballads and singing out how you feel. While Mr. Schuster, was singing a very apt for the situation song (The Police’s ‘Don’t Stand so Close to Me‘)  to a love struck Rachel – it got me thinking – do we have any good songs about telling someone that we’re really not into them? Well, at the very least, are there any good songs out there for the person who’s just itching to tell his or her current fling that they should just ‘be friends’?

For those feeling stuck in their relationships right now, we’ve got five songs that might be able to help you get unstuck from that rut. Break-ups are always hard to do, especially if you’re the one initiating it. So this week, we’ve got five songs that should help you spell out to your dearest ex-love that they’ve been, for lack of better words – dumped.

 1. Guillemots – Who Left The Lights Off Baby

 

For the passive / aggressive type, you might want to begin this song. The Guillemot’s Who Left the Lights Off, Baby is a polite and upbeat way of saying ‘I just want to get the hell away from you’. Subtle as it is, it’s a song that urges your object of non-affection to read between the lines: Breathe me away, breathe me back home/ I can love you baby ’til the cows came home / What’s that noise? ? Yeah it’s the cows knocking on our door . 

The only downside about it is if your future ex thinks anything like me, this might not be the most effective song. Just like Rachel thinking ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’ was Mr. Schuster’s way of saying that he can’t bear to be near her because of his overwhelming feelings,  I  had fallen in love with the song at at first listen and I thought that it was a nice love song. But fear not, the next song might just be the one – 

2. Loveninjas – Keep Your Love

 

When it comes to using songs to convey a message about love – the Loveninjas should be able get the job done. After all they are ninjas…loveninjas that is. 

Keep Your love is a toe tapping, head bopping way of giving out the bad news. With a chorus that repeats – ‘You can keep your love, You can keep your love/ You can keep your love away from me/ You can keep your love’. this should get the message through. Though there’s always a chance of misheard lyrics turning the ‘can’ into ‘can’t’ (which would make it into a truly romantic song). In this case you can probably move to the next song if letting him or her down easy, ain’t the ticket.

3. The 6ths – Falling Out Of Love (With You)

 

Stephin Merritt is the master of songs about love and heartbreak, delivered in a non-conventional way. Since quality ‘I wan’t to break up with you’ songs are uncommon – you’ll surely find a song that fits your need with any Stephin Merritt penned songs.

This song from The 6ths paints a clearer message of your doomed relationship : Every kiss means less and less/ I’m falling out of love with you / Every hour kills a flower / I’m falling out of love with you / You just bore me more and more / I’m falling out of love with you

Still delivered in a nice peppy way, it’s sort of still letting them down easy. But then again, to people in denial, a sweet and easy going song like this might not be the most effective one.
 

4. Lightspeed Champion – Stay The Fuck Away From Me

 

So you’ve come to this. It’s not the best sounding song in the lot, but it’s a blunt and direct way to send your message across. Nothing else puts a lasting impression than having an expletive in a song, and singing it in an angry, frustrated way.

Now that you’ve shed a bright light on the subject, then maybe this next song would represent the dialogue that you, and the one you currently hate the most, are going to have.

5. The Magnetic Fields – Yeah! Oh Yeah!

 

This is another Stephin Merritt song (I tell you, this man is a genius!), that brings more transparency to the situation. Nothing paints a better picture than role playing – with a duet between the dump-er and the dump-ee. Of course, the song ends with death, but you would’nt let it go that far would you?

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On a side note, if you’re not satisfied with the week’s songs here, you can head on over to Amazon.com since they’re giving away $3 worth of mp3s of your choice for free (it’s for US residents only though – which unfortunately I can’t avail of). And, maybe to soothe your weary heart, buy some shirts at Threadless – they’re having $12 T-shirt sale. That is all.

And, yeah, I dedicate this post to Jon and Kate, the poster couple for doomed relationships.

 

artwork: a Threadless tee by Jason Yang