“Don’t Want to Feel It All” by White Lies, Sunday, January 2, 2022

Following up their 2013 album Big TV, West-London-based post-punk band White Lies released their fourth album Friends in 2016. The album continues on the band's homage to the '80s, though the synths are not always as prominent as their first and third albums. Lyrical themes deal with friendship deterioration, alienation, and loneliness, yet the ebullience of the music often disguises the sadness in the lyrics.

NO, I'M NOT GOING TO BREAK YOUR HEART. White Lies started their career on a high note in the UK, but never really crossed over to the American market. The band formed in 2007 after ending an indie rock band called Fear of Flying the three member members of White Lies played in high school. In high school, the boys enjoyed listening to groups like Talking Heads and Franz Ferdinand, but with the inception of White Lies, the band claimed musical influence from Joy Division, Echo & the Bunnymen, and the Killers. The band decided to take a gap year between high school and university in order to focus on their new band. After recording their first album, To Lose My Life... the band scored a UK radio single, and the band took off on tours with Snow Patrol and Coldplay. The band also played festivals in the United States including Coachella and Lollapalooza, and performed on Late night shows on Letterman and Carson Daly. The band's only U.S. hit comes from their first album. "Death" hit number 4 on the Billboard Dance chart. Next month, White Lies will release their sixth studio album, As I Try Not to Fall Apart. 

BUT I MIGHT USE IT. "Don't  Want to Feel It All" is the fourth track on Friends and was the fifth and final single released from the album. The opening synth riff instantly reminds me of the chorus of Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It," and the chorus uses a kind of steel drum effect. The song seems to be about personal problems that get in the way when loving someone. The speaker is asking the listener to understand him, to bear with the "daydreaming." He doesn't want to feel the full weight of his relationship. He wants to be slightly divested. Perhaps, he thinks, if he feels it all, he will become unstable. Maybe numbing himself to what could make him feel the strongest emotions is a way of protecting himself from spiraling if he were to lose it all.* Or perhaps, the speaker is just too self-absorbed. After all, if you can't "feel it all" with a friend or significant other, that person might not be as important to you as you think they are, and they might start to think the same about you. But, maybe we're just talking about a season. Just as "Winter is taking ages" so can a dark season take a while with our relationships. 

*all of these are themes on the album I listened to most today, but decided against choosing depressing Underoath songs about suicide, loss, and drug addiction because I wanted to be a little more uplifting at the beginning of the year.
 


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