I've always been a person to root for love. Any time someone comes to me for relationship advice, I'll be the one to say "stay at it for as long as you can," or something along the lines to persuade that person to continue working on the relationship. With that said, sometimes things don't work out and two people weren't meant to be together and inevitably someone (or someones) get their heart broken. Then comes all the feelings of sorrow, anger and what not and to get through that time, you talk to all you friends, get back on that proverbial horse and start dating again, or you'll listen to music.
Aah the seminal breakup song! I'll be honest, there have been a lot of songs to help me get through such times and usually the songs are ambiguous in that it can work if you're a man or woman but most often, the songs are sung by women that have been done wrong by men. Now, I'm not saying there's little truth to these songs, and I'm one to agree that most men are stubborn (read: dumb) but let's be real here, sometimes it's women that are the "heartbreakers" for lack of a better word. So what's a broken hearted man supposed to listen to when he's been wronged?
I present to you Mayer Hawthorne's "The Walk" (don't YouTube it just yet, I've embedded the song at the end of this post). This is by far the best breakup song for guys I've ever heard. Quite simply, the lyrics are, well, a straight forward fuck you to whoever this woman is that compelled him to write this song (for the record, I'd like to meet this person because she did him oh so wrong for him to write SUCH a great song). But it's also a little complex with the send off because there are subtle juxtapositions within the song that when you catch it, makes listening to this song more enjoyable. For instance, I'm a big fan of soul music and much of soul music's song rhythms are for the most part joyful in its rhythmic bounce. You can be singing about love and a soul rhythm would work. You can sing of a terrible breakup with a soul rhythm and it'll work as well because what would be a sad tune, becomes a song of relief and release which is what this song is exactly. Hawthorne also adds more of a sting to this song when he sings about the qualities of her that attracted him and in the next line drops the bomb on her. The emotional tug of war within this song is really fun to hear! It's little wonder why that when I listen to this song, there's a smile on my face and a nice bounce in my legs as I dance along to it.
I find myself amused that this song wasn't available for the times when I felt like I got the shit end of the stick in a relationship because it really would've helped a lot. Anyway, Mayer Hawthorne is an AMAZING artist and I hope after listening to this song, you'll check out his discography and become a fan.
Best line: "your shape is like an hourglass but I think the time’s up"