Has there ever been a more unbearable radio hit?
I can't begin to express my revulsion. It starts with the lyrics - not so much the high school poetry, but the utter, unreflective, dude-in-a-band self-absorption pretending to depth.
EXHIBIT A
I'm sober now for 3 whole months, it's one accomplishment that you helped me with.
The one thing that always tore us apart is the one thing that I won't touch again.
In my sick way I want to thank you for holding my head up late at night
While I was busy waging wars on myself, you were trying to stop the fight
You never doubted my warped opinions on things like suicidal hate
You made me compliment myself when it was way too hard to take
So I'll drive so fucking far away that I'll never cross your mind
And do whatever it takes in your heart to leave me behind
But, y'know, plenty of songs have stupid lyrics and rule. Or have impossibly stupid lyrics and suck, but are kinda catchy (hi, Nickelback).
But there's nothing interesting musically here either, at least not that I can find. Just more downtuned wankage. Oh, plus a couple of hackneyed Watersisms (hi answering machine, hi childrens' voices) because someone heard that fellow-Texans Secret Machines are getting positive Floyd comparisons.
According to the Blue October myspace page, "Hate Me" is "a song that recalls such aching rock anthems as Joy Divisions Love Will Tear Us Apart or Janes Addictions Jane Says for songwriter Justin Furstenfelds unflinching look at his own illness, which caused him to be committed to a mental hospital back on that fateful Blue October day back in 1997."
No, it doesn't. Can anyone tell me what I'm missing here? Googlers welcome.
― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 04:32 (nineteen years ago)
Emo in the post-Killers era then. Come back MCR and The Used, all is forgiven.
― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 24 May 2006 05:12 (nineteen years ago)
Bump. I want answers, people!
― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 1 June 2006 16:28 (nineteen years ago)
three months pass...
Can't defend it. Can't listen to it. Can't stand it.
Pretentious emo nonsense. Can't stand his vocals.
Guess I'm not living up to the thread's challenge, but I feel better now.
― Sean Robison (yaratnam), Sunday, 10 September 2006 01:29 (nineteen years ago)
Ned pretty damn off the mark with bringing up emo. If anything it reminds me more of wounded tough guy balladeering a la Social Distortion gone terribly wrong.
― Alex in Baltimore (Alex in Baltimore), Sunday, 10 September 2006 02:31 (nineteen years ago)
...so, emo, in otherwards.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 10 September 2006 02:34 (nineteen years ago)
IS IT JUST ME OR IS THIS SINGER TOTALLY COPPING PETER GABRIEL'S GENESIS ERA VOCAL SOUND AND PHRASING?
― chaki (chaki), Monday, 11 September 2006 02:49 (nineteen years ago)
there is no defense. and chaki if your so pissed off about his vocal style imagine the girl you like and were dating for the summer goes off to college and becomes a blue october groupie - THAT IS INFURIATING. THAT IS PAIN.
― jodawo (jodawo), Monday, 11 September 2006 03:02 (nineteen years ago)
im not pissed about his vocals. i was just wondering if anyone else agreed with me :(
― chaki (chaki), Monday, 11 September 2006 04:09 (nineteen years ago)
That said, I'm torn between wanting to like the song and wanting to punch the singer.
As far as "emo" goes, I think these guys owe way to more Matchbox 20 and Seven Mary Three than to Senses Fail or Hawthorne Heights. (Does this mean the cycle of nostalgia has begun anew? Are we in for a new crop of mid-90s style grunge-lite? Shudder.)
Incidentally, Tiziano Ferro's "Sere Nere" is an Italian power ballad that makes infinitely better use of almost the exact same vocal hook.
― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Monday, 11 September 2006 12:20 (nineteen years ago)
Chaki OTM re: Gabriel. Part of what I love about this song is how that rigid artvoice meshes clashes with the middle american self-loathing power ballad genre.
― Zwan (miccio), Monday, 11 September 2006 12:55 (nineteen years ago)
four years pass...
lol, they are still trying to make Blue October happen
― now I have to imagine your penis (DJP), Tuesday, 30 August 2011 13:41 (fourteen years ago)