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Brand New – Out of Range Lyrics 6 years ago
This is crazy long, so I don't blame you if it's a tl;dr for you. I just need to get this out.

I have a confession to make. I've been in a torrid love affair with Jesse Lacey ever since Your Favorite Weapon. Sure, he probably (longer story than this) has no idea who I am, but that doesn't matter because it's true love. He understands me even better than I do myself. Every song on YFW was exactly what I needed at that time in my life. I was only 15, but I'd already met the man I was going to marry.

When Deja Entendu came out, I knew without a doubt that I would never love anyone the way I loved him. Every. Darn. Song. Again, they were exactly what I needed. The direction they were taking their music in was the same direction my taste in music was going. We were growing together and, holy crap, we were made for each other.

(At this point, I need to say that I am aware Jesse Lacey isn't the only member of Brand New. Vinnie, Brian, and Garrett are extremely talented and I don't want to take away any of their accomplishments. Without them, there would be no Brand New.)

The day TDAGARIM dropped, I couldn't stop listening. I was late to work and got wrote up, but I didn't care because he still understood me. Jesse Lacey was still my one and only. Good god, you guys... I can't explain the feeling this album gives me every time I listen to it. All the songs, every one of them... I feel them so deeply that it hurts. 'You Won't Know' speaks to me on a level that is devastating and beautiful at the same time. And the demos... I can't listen to '(Fork and Knife)' without wanting to cry.

But, the years passed (like they're known to do), and life decided to hit me as hard as it could. I had a baby and almost died because of a little thing called MRSA. I lost my mother to a horrible disease. I just went through a really hard time in general. One sleepless night, I remembered Brand New and I remembered what Jesse Lacey meant to me. How could I forget about that? So, I looked them up and, lo and behold, they had a new album out. A new album that had already been out long enough to not be considered new.

Daisy was beautiful. And, again, it was exactly what I needed. All the songs. Still. But it was different... I just couldn't believe I didn't know they'd released it. How did that happen? All that love I felt for Jesse Lacey? When did I lose it?

Life. That's how it happened. Life and that jerk called time. I'm not afraid to admit that that realization brought me to tears. I couldn't listen to Brand New anymore. It hurt too much.

Then, on another sleepless night, I gathered up my courage and listened to this song. This beautiful, perfect song. I cried. I bawled. I was so overcome with emotion that I couldn't do anything but sob for what felt like hours.

They weren't sad tears, though. It was ridiculous, really, but they were tears of happiness. All those years melted away and Jesse Lacey spoke to me again in a way he never had before. I loved him again, only not in the way I used to. He felt like an old, dear friend. Our lives took different paths, we drifted apart, but that was all okay because he still knows me even after all these years.

Jesse Lacey, wherever you are, we may not have gotten married and made a lot of babies, but I want you to know I'm happy with the journey life took us on. I hope you are, too.

I don't know if he wrote this or if Vinnie did, but it doesn't change anything. I'd have this same feeling no matter what because it's Brand New.

submissions
The Smiths – Rubber Ring Lyrics 12 years ago
Hands down my favorite Smith's song. Everyone has their own opinion about what it means in general, and they're mostly right. But this is what it means to me, and it's extremely important to me. Plus, this is the only place I can actually seriously talk about it. Bear with me.

Isn't nostagia one of the greatest/worse feelings ever? Whenever I hear this song, I think back to the most horrible period of my life. Well, I thought it was my most horrible. Typical teenage angst. Now, I know that that was one of the greatest times of my life.

"A sad fact widely known
The most impassionate song
To a lonely soul
Is so easily outgrown
But don't forget the songs
That made you smile
And the songs that made you cry
When you lay in awe
On the bedroom floor..."

I lived in the middle of nowhere and I was an only child. So, I spent a lot of time in my bedroom bemoaning my fate. But then...I discovered music. REAL music. My music. It wasn't being fed to me through the popular radio stations. Oh, that is a great personal discovery, isn't it? Finding music that speaks to you. Especially if you're all alone in the middle of nowhere with only the cows to keep you company. I would 'lay in awe on the bedroom floor' for hours listening to that beautiful release.

"The passing of time
And all of its crimes
Is making me sad again
The passing of time
And all of its sickening crimes
Is making me sad again
But don't forget the songs
That made you cry
And the songs that saved your life
Yes, you're older now
And you're a clever swine
But they were the only ones who ever stood by you."

It was then that I started to grow up- to find my own self and make up my mind about the world around me. At the time, I thought it was horrible. I'd wallow in my own angst and look around in disdain because no one knew what it was like. (What a tool I was, looking back on it now.) It got to the point that the songs that made me think were old and overplayed. They didn't touch me the way they used to. I didn't think about what was happening to me. I didn't even realize I was losing something precious. I was losing the very thing that made me, well, me. And I slowly forgot about the only ones who every stood by me.

"The passing of time leaves empty lives
Waiting to be filled (the passing...)
The passing of time
Leaves empty lives
Waiting to be filled
I'm here with the cause
I'm holding the torch
In the corner of your room
Can you hear me?
And when you're dancing and laughing
And finally living
Hear my voice in your head
And think of me kindly."

I jumped at life and slowly forgot the important songs. I was a music snob. (Oh, yes, I'll say it, I was a music hipster before being a music hipster was cool.) I just listened to them. I didn't feel them. That was my senior year of high school. That was when I was 'dancing and laughing and finally living'. I had friends who thought like me. That was something I never saw coming and I began to take it for granted. Then, it became clear something was missing. I'd be out with friends and I would realize that none of what we were talking about mattered. Don't get me wrong, I had fun. I had A LOT of fun. But it was all vapid. Shallow. Unimportant. I never got that feeling anymore. You know that feeling. When you listen to a song (an important one) and you're whole body aches and you can't breathe and you are so happy and so sad at the same time because somebody knows you. That impossible voice knows you and they want you to know that it's okay it's going to be okay I'm here for you whenever you need me I am yours. (Just thinking about that feeling right now makes me a bit teary-eyed.)

It was then that I realized I had turned my back on something so precious and innocent. And I would never get it back again. That one moment when you realize you are not alone. It's gone and you can never get it back and it hurts. The only thing you can do is look back and remember that voice in the darkness.

I can remember everysinglething about that voice. Everything about that voice is important. How it cracked on that one particular word or how it rose and fell in time with the music. And, sometimes, very rarely, I can get that feeling back. Just a ghost of it.

And I really hope Morrissey* knows how he made people like me feel more alive more than anything else in the world.

(*I know that The Smiths are more than just Morrissey...but it was his voice that made me feel.)

* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.