Bleachers: I May Be Late to the Party, but It Is Still Going Strong

While at my friend’s house, a song came on her Spotify and I immediately asked, “Who is this?”  “Bleachers,” she said.  The next sentence out of my mouth was, “This sounds like Fun.  “Funny you should say that,” she said.  “Jack Antonoff is in it, and he’s in Fun."

I was immediately intrigued.  Upon first listen I was struck by the dancey, catchy beats, but as I gave it a deeper listen, I was overwhelmed with influences from Fun to Taylor Swift, and even the Beach Boys.  As a fan of both the 80s and the 90s, Bleachers is a mix of energy and fun: two things both decades are known for. 

Though Antonoff’s side project was kept a secret up until May 2013, when it was announced on Facebook post by Brooklyn music studio Mission Sound, it wasn’t until February 18, 2014 when they released their first single “I Wanna Get Better,” along with the launch of their website.

As I anticipate seeing them live tonight, here are a few of their songs I can’t get out of my head:

“Don’t Take the Money”

I love when a band doesn’t have to try too hard to be different, because music is a melding of influences.  It should come as no surprise then that their latest single, “Don’t Take the Money” could easily be confused as a Fun track.  Bleachers uses the spoken word just like in “Fun-Some Nights.”  I’m not always a fan of this technique unless the lyrics truly mean something, but in “Don’t Take the Money” the lyrics are poetic in nature and capture the idea of never selling out.  They sing, “When you're looking at your shadow/Standing on the edge of yourself/Praying on the darkness/Just don't take the money..”  The opening lyric, “Somebody broke me once/Love was a currency” speaks of a relationship where money became the driving factor.  As the relationship goes on, the singer reminisces to earlier, better times as noted in the chorus, “You steal the air out of my lungs, you make me feel it/I pray for everything we lost, buy back the secrets…”

“I Wanna Get Better”

This song is an anthem for change and bettering oneself.  It illustrates that no matter what horrible experiences you may have been through, the darkness can fade.  You can get better.  Perhaps one of Antonoff’s most personal songs, he spoke to MTV saying, “I wanted to tell my whole life story condensed into three verses…”  The song deals with Antonoff losing his sister when he was a teenager: “I froze in time between hearses and caskets.”  After that happened, Antonoff got into acid.  The frantic pace of the chorus perfectly captures this high.  Later in the song, Antonoff’s sister comes to him in a dream: “Woke up this morning early before my family/From this dream where she was trying to show me/How a life can move from the darkness/She said to get better.”  He recognizes that he needs to change.     

“Goodmorning”

If you listen closely to the beginning notes of “Goodmorning,” you may hear the Beach Boys’ Forever.  As you get to the third line, “Always one foot out when you say goodbye to the one that you love/One dream away from the ones above” you may even hear hints of “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables.  Whether intentional or not, it’s an interesting juxtaposition.  “Goodmorning” takes the idea of a love song and flips it on its head.  The singer wakes up in the “in-between” which could be a drunken stupor contemplating where his life is going after his indiscretion: “Because I lied to you (I lied to you)/I lied to your face in the summer.”  The chorus pokes fun at his lifestyle: “I'm singing out back.  Good morning to the cops (oh)/Good morning to my upstairs neighbor,” because is it really a good morning?  He wishes he could change things: “I wish that I could stop (oh)/Now I wish that I could live a little safer...”  There appears to be forgiveness from the mystery girl, “Yeah, she touched me, said, ‘I know you're not to blame’” but he knows the truth: “What a weight to live under/What a lie that's been covered.”  By the end of the song he still wants her: “I'm coming for you…”

“Rollercoaster”

I defy anyone to not try and dance to this one- it’s near impossible.  While we all may not have experienced a perfect love story, the song title alone is metaphoric in so many ways.  Love can be slow, then increase in intensity.  It can be a ride that seems to go on and on, or it can end just as quickly as it started.   As a huge fan of Taylor’s Swift’s 1989, I couldn’t help but hear “You’re in Love” at the beginning of this track.  Swift co-wrote that track with Antonoff and is about his relationship with Lena Dunham.  Strikingly similar, the opening notes on both of these songs evoke a sense of magic- that tingly feeling you feel at the beginning of a relationship.  The song speaks of a young summer love: “It was summer when I saw your face/But like a teenage runaway/” By the second verse, the singer’s infatuation has grown, as he thinks about her “..every day and night…”  By the chorus, the excitement of the new love has reached an all-time high.

“Live A River Runs”

Sometimes it takes a unique voice to take an ordinary song to the next level.  In Sia’s cover of “Like a River Runs,” her combination of soul and deep longing takes this ballad up a notch.  The lyrics evoke painful reminders of a relationship that was destroyed: “I woke up thinking you were still here/My hands shaking with regret.”  As the chorus hits,  “When I fall asleep I can see your face/What I lost in you I will not replace” there is the sense that moving on is not so simple nor is it feasible at this point in time.  As the listener, you can feel the emotion and it’s hauntingly beautiful.  Darkness and light are prevalent in Antonoff’s songs and “Like A River Runs” is no exception: “And if you see me in the darkness/I hope you know I'm not alone/I carry you with every breath I take.”