Starting Fresh

Artist: Beck
Song: Think I’m In Love
Album: The Information
Mood: Cautiously Optimistic

As a general rule, love songs are usually fairly narrow-minded. Guy meets girl, girl is “not like anything I’ve ever known,” guy falls in love, they’re happy, et cetera. The best singers and songwriters can make this formula work by injecting detail into the song: “the way you sing off-key,” “at first I thought it was infatuation/but ooh, it’s lasted so long”; these details humanize the subject, which in turn enables the listener to ascribe certain characteristics of the subject to their loved ones in real life. After all, music is always more enjoyable when it’s something to which you can relate. But I digress. In spite of the relatively formulaic nature of love songs, there are songs that come along on occasion and provide a different, refreshing take on things; such is the case with Beck’s “Think I’m In Love.” It’s mellow but eminently dance-worthy, a layered, upbeat groove that still feels like a ballad at times. In short, the song is cool. It doesn’t try to do too much; there’s almost a sense that Beck knew when he was writing it that it works as background music or as the center of attention.

The subject matter is refreshing, a true glimpse into the thought process of most people when confronted with the prospect of being in love- “Really think I better get a hold of myself/Don’t wanna let the night get ahead of myself.” For all our talk about wanting to find love, we as humans are still remarkably skittish when we’re staring it in the face. Idiotic, to be sure; it makes no sense to desire something so strongly and then want to back away from it, but such is the human condition. But what sells this song for me is the chorus: “I think I’m in love, but it makes me kinda nervous to say so”- the way it’s delivered is a testament to the cautious optimism of the speaker.

What vaults this song from “pretty good” to “I need to write about this shit NOW” is the fact that it has multiple meanings. For example, I just got back from a weekend trip to NYC, and in spite of the fact that I missed my original flight home, possibly broke my ankle (I can’t say for sure- doctors are for chumps) and spent an exorbitant amount of money…I think I’m in love with that city, and I need to move there post-haste. And therein lies the cautious optimism- I think I love NYC, but could it work? Would I find a decent job? Would the city love me back, or would I end up getting chewed up and spit out? Nobody knows how it’ll turn out, but it’s like falling in love with another person- sometimes the fun’s in the finding out.

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