Never Meant
Never Meant (American Football)
As autumn slowly starts, I feel that it’s appropriate to talk about a song from one of the best records to play during this time of the year. American Football is a band with legendary status, which is something I don’t say often. They could release the worst music you’ve ever heard, but that still won’t change the fact that they, by their own bootstraps, made Midwest emo a thing.
Around two years ago, I was listening to what others recommended to me or what was popular. I was desperate to find a sound that was truly mine. This kicked off a period of my life when I was going through all kinds of music to see what I liked. After a considerable amount of searching, I came across this song. It instantly perked my ears. The odd time signature, the amazing drum groove, the open and angular guitar parts beautifully harmonise together. I knew that this was what I had been looking for all this time.
Musically, the song is quite interesting, the odd time signature instantly throws you off. The song is played in an Fmaj7 alternate tuning (FACGCE). The major7 chord here gives it an incredibly emotional sound. I find maj7 chords quite interesting as the interval itself is quite dissonant, but with the added context of the root and the third, it metamorphoses into this graceful and gossamer harmony. The song has a lot of interesting musical concepts going on for me to be able to break down, so I’m going to be focusing more on the lyrics.
The song starts off with the band getting ready to play the song, with them asking each other if they’re ready before the drummer starts counting into the tune. I feel that the song talks about trying to accept a failed relationship. What makes it hurt even more is that both of them felt their best with each other, but slowly that just disappeared. It was this slow burn that crept up till both parties had to accept that it was better for both of them to go their separate ways.
We start off with our protagonist knowing that it’ll be hard to move on but not fully accepting it. He tries to forget all the words they said to each other and the things they did together. In a close relationship, as is being talked about in this song, both parties felt that their better halves were underscored. However, soon they start to feel the cracks forming in their relationship. This is caused by several fights and arguments. This leads to the protagonist realising that things can’t go on further, and in those arguments without forethought, he made bad decisions and said things that were offensive. He keeps on repeating, "There were some things that were said that weren’t meant" as he wishes that he had never said those things at all.
He is suddenly overwhelmed by the memories of the relationship and starts to deny its existence in the first place to ease the loss he has suffered. Our protagonist now starts focusing on getting over the relationship as quickly as possible by forgetting anything ever happened ("You can’t miss what you forget"). At the end of the day, he tries to put it in a way for both of them to not grieve over the relationship for too long. He does this by telling himself and the other person that anything and everything between them was never meant to be in the first place and hence failed.
This song is a masterpiece; it makes you feel the way the songwriter must’ve felt while they were writing this song. Inevitably, we all have to go through a failed relationship. Be it family, friends, or someone else. It’s hard to easily let go of all the memories as you reminisce about what once was and what could have been. At the end of the day, we have to accept that life will do such things to us to build character and transform us into more colourful people with deep thoughts and experiences.
Thanks a lot for reading, and have an amazing day!
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