Song Titles That Perfectly Reflect My Own Sentiments

Bauhaus - All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
But "All we ever got was cold." I dare anyone to sum up the human condition better in as few words.

Beach Boys - I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
God told me that I'd be a stranger in a strange land. Brian Wilson didn't tell me anything so prophetic. He simply stated what was true to himself and I could only nod. This can be taken as a forlorn statement of self-defeat, but also has a positive connotation, that of defiance; for if the present is a wasteland, then the future is the opportunity given to make it how it was or could be.

Califone - Don't Let Me Die Nervous
Sublime last words best left unrecorded, as the plea against nervousness gives away the incipient nervous state.

Elvis Costello - I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
Not just as far as the future goes, but physically as well. Sometimes I'm a jumble of nerves and don't even know which direction my eyes should sink to. It's like God's granted command of a nuclear submarine to a rookie cadet soul, and he's sinking it into the ocean one moment of indecision at a time.

Dirty Three - I Really Should've Gone Out Last Night
It's not that I always prefer going out to staying home; it's that home feels so much better when you've done something to earn its comforts.

Echobelly - I Can't Imagine The World Without Me
I can't. Without me the world as far as I know it and care to know it has no anchor, no protagonist, no narrator, no lone voice of reason. It turns from a readable if dreary diary into an incomprehensible manuscript typed out by monkeys or angels using trans-celestial typewriters.

Gang Of Four - I Found That Essence Rare
The essence of anything is hard to find, lost as it is in a jungle of surface meaning. All we can do is probe through the darkness in search of a glimpse. The message reminds me of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which Gang of Four quote in another fantastic song title of theirs: "We Live as We Dream, Alone."

Godflesh - Anything Is Mine
Everything isn't mine. But anything, anything. . . oh "the dizziness of freedom." Like the platitude "You can do anything if you put your mind to it," put it in a far more direct, possessive, brutal and therefore truthful way.

Joy Division - I Remember Nothing
This is a statement of temporary nirvana. We haven't all felt it, but surely we've all longed to at some point. To me it brings to mind the defiance of a court witness, asked to describe an unspeakable tragedy. It's a cold response with the heat of emotion implicit. Even if he could remember, perhaps some things are best left forgotten.

KMFDM - Help Us Save Us Take Us Away
I've always had a certain grudging admiration for the way Hare Krishnas reduce the intricacies of prayer to the simple recitation of two words. These seven words do them one better though, by encompassing the cry implicit in every mantra, religious or secular.

Ned's Atomic Dustbin - All I Ask Of Myself Is That I Hold Together
A demand, a mantra, a last-ditch prayer. Behind the thin fabric of reason lurks the threat of spontaneous combustion, self-induced cancer or a head-long, head-first retreat to the floor. "Come Together" was a noble sentiment on the part of John Lennon (and Timothy Leary), but holding together is the greater and infinitely more pressing concern.

Pixies - I've Been Tired
So often, too often. Right now in fact. 50 Cent can say "I've been shot" and my eyes will glaze over, but Frank Black speaks the words that my weary, heavy mind can collapse in agreement to.

Radiohead - I Might Be Wrong
"I might be wrong": surely that thought is always present in any all-too self-conscious mind. It's a statement of doubt, but also a mission statement of resolve in spite of itself.

The Smiths - Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
If it was simply "Please let me get what I want," it would seem petulant. If it was "Please, please let me get what I want," it would seem whiney. But the third "Please" adds a note of resigned desperation that transforms the cry of a child into the final gasp of an adult mind at the end of its tether.

Smog - I Could Drive Forever
I could, oh how I could. The destination is always a disappointment compared to the journey. We'd all be better off if someone built a highway around the world and tampered with our brakes.

The Sound - I Can't Escape Myself
This is perhaps the most universal of statements. Drugs, transcendental meditation, a life on the run. . . all must reach the unmovable ceiling that is this fact. That the singer would later kill himself is a sad affirmation of its truth.

The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored
We all want it, but few are willing to state it so directly. As far as Maslow's pyramid of human needs goes, adoration should really be just above food and shelter. The message reminds me of that other admirably infantile-but-honest admission by the Red Hot Chili Peppers: "My mom, love her 'cause she love me."