LNM #2

LNM #2

Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl

I came across this song on the Scott Pilgrim OST and never paid much attention to it til after I watched the movie. No idea why or how that happened. This song is musically beautiful and the repetitious lyrics become quite haunting. Most people have a different interpretation for the lyrics and I find that most of them are quite valid. My reading of it, before reading those of others, was that the song is about a guy that used to know a girl before she changed to try to fit in with a different crowd. He's now thinking to himself that she can never have him ever again because of what has happened. She used to be an individual but now she's just conforming to fit in with everyone else. It was because she was an individual that he liked her in the first place: 'Used to be one of the rotten ones, and I liked you for that.' Now she's trying to fit in: 'Bleaching your teeth, smiling flash, talking trash...' He's thinking to himself the day that she realises she's not who she wants to be, it'll be too late and he can only be a dream to her when she feels upset and restless about who she has become: 'Park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me.' As the song progresses, it feels like the narrator is regretting his loss less and less. Almost as if to come to an acceptance that the moment has passed. Towards the beginning, he asks 'can't you come back?' But by the end it's just an acknowledgement that the girl is not coming back.

It's such a hauntingly beautiful song... It just really makes you think. The slow buildup of the music with the never changing tone of the vocalist (who is Emily Haines from Metric) is just mesmerising.  The banjo and strings are a wonderful addition. It's as though the feelings become stronger, more confident as the song progresses. The song definitely has a melancholic or nostalgic vibe to it. It's just really amazing. 

Don't change who you are for other people because then you'll lose what is most important to you.

P.S. I'll be adding the video and lyrics to each LNM from now on. :)

Used to be one of the rotten ones and he liked you for that.


Used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that.


Now you're all gone, got your makeup on and you're not coming back.


Can't you come back?


Used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that.


Now you're all gone, got your makeup on and you're not coming back.


Bleaching your teeth, smiling flash, talking trash, under your breath.


Bleaching your teeth, smiling flash, talking trash, under my window.


Park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me.


Park that car, drop that phone, park that car, dream about me.


Used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that.


Now you're all gone, got your makeup on and you're not coming back.


- Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl - Broken Social Scene