Not Sensible
“Get comfortable, get unfrustrated. Get healthy and all the things that you want.”
So begins the Tokyo Police Club song “Not Sick”. I loved this song because it’s like an aural water park ride. It makes you wanna put your arms in the air and shout “Whoo!” as the hand-claps & guitars splash your t-shirt & board shorts. But then I loved it again for a different reason.
“It’s there on the tip of your tongue, on the back of your hand, in the place that you had it last… You need to be careful.”
It think the singer, Dave, is looking back on his favorite relationship. You know, the one girl who’s good name survived the blame game. He sings happy belated birthday to Carolina and says she’s “always golden, still the greatest.” If you’ve ever had this feeling then you know why it sucks. It’s like someone’s haunting you without being dead yet.
He knows it’s stupid- thus the first few lines of the song- and he follows his own advice in a clever, idiotic, overly-literal way:
“Not Sensible. I wanna marry a dancer. Vegetarian, can’t stand to be wrong.”
Those are my favorite lines of the song. I have to admit, part of the fun of writing songs is saying odd, nonsensical things, painting weird pictures, but giving them context. And that line sounds like nonsense, but it makes perfect sense in the song. Beautiful.
So there he stands, facing his future relationships with his best idea of perfect behind him. He looks at all his potential futures and asks,
“Is this the best of the best for me?.. So what do you need?! What do you need?! What do you need?!”
I can relate. I bet you can relate. If not, you must be more sensible that me.
