On this coming Tuesday, this challenge will come to an end. Does that break your heart?
Good, because that’s what today’s song{s) should do apparently.
Day 27: A song that breaks your heart
2020: “No Distance Left To Run”, Blur
I mean, it doesn’t get more heartbreaking than this considering this performance was Damon coming to terms with his life at that point, telling himself that it was indeed over between him and Justine. Credit has to go to him for going to the effort of penning a song centred around the final, fateful breakup, when all he could have done instead was doing a more 13-style rendition of “To The End”. Same sentiment, but much more genuine and raw.
2025: “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, Joy Division
I’ve got a monthly entry coming up on New Year’s Eve and in it I’ll be talking about Joy Division and how, despite them being quality musicians, I do feel a little uneasy when listening to them. I know that’s likely the point given that they are a post punk outfit (arguably the poster boys for the genre to some), but like with the above song, real life context makes things that much more difficult to digest.
Most of all the single that sits neatly between Joy Division’s two albums, and maybe even above the pair of them. Ian Curtis laying himself so bare it’s a wonder this song isn’t sung by a skeleton. The title itself can be interpreted in different ways though. The love between Ian and Annik tearing apart his marriage to Deborah? Or tearing themselves apart inside, with all the metaphorical walls to their love keeping them separate? Poor sods, the three of them.
Those synth chords too. Cold, melancholy, funeralistic. Gives you the shivers.
A-Side Glance 