I started this song around two years ago. It was finished last weekend. It took two years not because of any creative or artistic hindrances, but simply because I consistently put it off. Indeed, if one listens to it one can hardly think it took that long to make such a mundane piece of drivel.

Okay, enough self-deprecation and more about the song. This song is classic unrequited love fare, and actually has a backstory (which I will not recount, you gossips!). I tried to put into the song - as much in the arrangement as in the words - the two sides of a one-sided love affair. Here is the fool in love, who finds every little gesture, every word said as a Great Sign and feels like the world will explode. On the other hand, the loved gives no love in return, and “goes about with her ways”, even unaware of the damage she deals with that one hapless fool. I also remember here Aimee Mann’s “Deathly”, with the memorable opening line:

Now that I’ve met you, would you object to never seeing each other again?

But we’re getting too serious. This song is intended to be fun, a parody of that feeling of the past (although at the time I wrote it, parody was the last of my intentions). And really, that feeling of being unloved, of self-pity even, seems very distant now that I look back. It feels… juvenile. Well, until the next time that happens, which hopefully won’t be very soon.

And now back to self-deprecation. The song I would say isn’t my favorite, but I think it has its moments, even if it was very lousily executed. It was recorded at the time when I used to think it isn’t important to play along the metronome. The result is fluctuating tempos, and little stumbles within the song’s rhythm. But I think it is redeemed by many mes singing the chorus in unison - I wouldn’t be that amused by it if not for the thought of having created a Sufjan Stevens-like song. (But honestly, I don’t remember if I have already listened to his works when I wrote and recorded it.)

Finally, the obligatory disclaimer: I am not a good singer.

THE DREARY PLAINS OF NEVER (right-click, then Save As)