My New Theme Song


The problem with buying more music than you can possibly listen to (which isn't really, I know, a problem [in the same way that buying books that you just know that you'll just never get to isn't a problem; you buy them because you love books and without a second thought]) is that you end up finding out eventually that you've had songs on your rig for years and years that you could have been loving all along if only they had worked themselves into the rotation.

At some point at the end of 2005 or the beginning of 2006, I must have become aware of Ladytron's existence, and of the existence of their late-2005 album, Witching Hour. Some time shortly thereafter, I put the album in my cart and, some time shortly after that, purchased it, along with what I am going to assume were many other albums.

The album probably got onto my previous rig during the already famous May of 2008 transferral, but I hadn't ever heard one song off of it until just recently. Or, if I did, the song hadn't been memorable enough to make me notice it as it played in the background while I sat in front of one of my last two rigs.

The Witching Hour track that I finally did notice was Destroy Everything You Touch. The title's enough to make me love it (just like the name of a This Mortal Coil album, It'll End in Tears, was enough to make me love it [because, more than likely, it, whatever it is, will end in tears]), because it's sort of what I do. I could give you a list, and it would be impressive, but not in a good way.

The song's about a person who preemptively wrecks everything, especially that which can hurt him or her, thus avoiding said hurt. Hey, I get it. The pain is to be avoided, even if it  means continually messing up your life. Pain is painful. Who needs it?

But, of course, we all know that the opposite is true, that it's terrible and tragic to close off and then to lead a stunted life because you're scared to get hurt. And this song reminds us of that, which is a good and honorable thing for a song to do, but it can also lead to some unpleasant self-reflection. And the really horrible thing is that Destroy Everything You Touch is also a great dance track, so you have to think about the disaster[s] that you've made out of your life (which is a real goddamn drag, man) while you're also dancing as you sit in your high-back office chair.