Bohemia Bunny

Emo Songs I Secretly Love, Part 2.

January 11th, 2007 by lynnylchan under Uncategorized

Blue October, Hate Me.

Despite its title, I’m inclined to think of this as a love song. A very sad love song, written to the wronged party, asking her to forget him and move on. Its very personal subject matter gives it a visceral honesty that goes a long way towards establishing it as an emo song in my book.

Jeff Buckley, Hallelujah.

In my opinion, one of the most beautiful songs ever written. The music and lyrics come together so synergistically that listening to it is pretty much a spiritual experience. Never mind the fact that The O.C. used it in the first season as background music, it’s still a brilliant piece of musicianship.

My Chemical Romance, Welcome to the Black Parade.

I didn’t think much of “Helena” or their previous songs, so it came as a surprise to me that the radio hit with the refrain “We’ll carry on” was actually by MCR. It’s a ridiculously upbeat song about death. Which gives it a somewhat insouciant sense of morbidity and yet of laughing in Death’s face - the chorus is defiant that death does not mean the end, because our memories will carry on.

The All-American Rejects, It Ends Tonight.

I’m a sucker for piano bands. That’s pretty much it.

The Fray, How To Save A Life.

More piano goodness! The vocalist’s nasal drawl in the verse builds up an image of a relationship on the rocks before the whole band joins in the chorus, carried along by a tinkly piano. But I still don’t know what lifesaving skills have to do with the subject matter.

Splender, I Think God Can Explain.

Musically, this is not an outstanding song. The part of the song that carries meaning for me is the chorus, where the vocalist figures he’s ok, God can explain, and he’ll get over it. I used to think he was being blasphemous, but I’ve since developed a different perspective on it. My take on it now is that the underlying meaning is “spirituality is the answer”. He’s not demanding answers from God, he’s turning to his belief system to help him get through it. I could be wrong, but that’s my take on it.

The Wallflowers, One Headlight.

This song is surreal. Probably has something to do with the haunting sound of whatever instrument is making those UFO-like sounds. And then the guitars come in, distortion all over the place, and it ends with a solo. This song is like nothing I’ve heard before or since. I’m at a loss to describe why I like it, the only clue I have is that it was released circa 1997 when I was in a really weird place, mentally. So, weird music for weird moods.