Credit: SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
Credit: VAGRANT RECORDS (US)
It’s the time of year when love is on everyone’s mind. For some, it’s time to celebrate. For others, it’s time to throw a singles party. Both are good ways of letting off steam following midterm season.
Unfortunately, the beginning of a relationship can often be an extraordinarily confusing few weeks. In times like that, it often helps me to listen to music, to listen to other people express feelings that I myself cannot.
We’ll start at the beginning, with one of the cornier phenomena ever recorded: love at first sight. It hasn’t happened to me, but the idea is easy to get wrapped up in. You’re just walking down Bruin Walk minding your own business. It’s so early you aren’t even aware your feet are moving.
All of a sudden, there they are, bundled up against the cold, but shining just the same. You don’t know them, but you know in a second you have to be a part of their lives. I was lucky enough to find the perfect song for such an occasion.
“To Whom It May Concern” is a song by The Civil Wars off of their album “Barton Hollow,” which was released on Feb. 1. The song is subtle acoustic guitars behind the beautiful, harmonizing male and female voices that sing out, “I missed you, but I haven’t met you. Oh, but I want to.”
Listening to this song, you get the feeling that the singing man and woman know exactly how you feel just now.
Now, let’s say that you somehow find a way to meet this mystery person and you two hit it off. You start dating, but it’s too soon, and the relationship falls apart early.
This could happen, oh, I don’t know, by someone reversing their “yes” soon after your relationship has begun. (Yes, this is autobiographical, but don’t worry, we laugh about it now.)
Even though the relationship stopped before it even got going, you’re not done. Not by a long shot. Despite the advice of your friends, you’re going to wait for this person, because you know that you two are supposed to be with each other.
Your search for reassurance leads you to “And If My Heart Should Somehow Stop” by James Vincent McMorrow. The song is off the album “Early In the Morning,” which was released on Jan. 25 in the United States.
Now, in this situation, it would be completely normal to withdraw completely from life, to just want to dig a hole and stay there. McMorrow, however, sings of a more realistic and determined approach. He sings, “And there are times I know when I will have to chase you, the further from my side you go, the longing grows, and though I hate this, I’ll still want you.”
So, despite all logic, you hold on. Your friends will continue to attempt to bring you to the light, to make you understand that he or she is not coming back. It won’t matter. You wait, hoping for your love to return but not really believing it will happen.
You hate the waiting, because, quite frankly, the waiting sucks. The funny thing about love, though, is that it often seems to fall right into your lap whenever you stop actively looking for it.
And so, like any good Valentine’s Day movie, this story ends well. One day, they come back. Maybe it just took a little time for them to figure things out, maybe they missed you when you were gone. It doesn’t really matter. You’re together again.
In times like this, one song soars above the rest as a victory song about the rewards of sacrifices in the pursuit of love: “This = Love” by The Script. The song is off “Science & Faith,” which was released on Jan. 18.
In one of the more epic choruses of alternative music so far this year, the band’s front man sings out, “This is why we do it. This is worth the pain. This is why we bow down and get back up again. … Love is this. This is love.”
When it comes down to it, finding someone you truly love and doing anything you can to be with them is one of the least logical, but most fulfilling, processes anyone can undertake. And, no matter how hard it is, the finished product is more than worth it. Trust me.
To someone who knows very well who she is and who is worth more than she can possibly guess, here are two early wishes: Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Two-Years.
What is the soundtrack to your relationship? E-mail your song choices and suggestions for future columns to Bain at abain@media.ucla.edu.
“Single-Minded” runs every Friday.