We're Breaking Up - Against Me!

We're Breaking Up - Against Me!

3:57

White Crosses, 2010

Written by Laura Jane Grace

This is a raw, powerful song of the end of a relationship.  There's no finger-pointing, no dredging up the past, no wishful thinking or even regret.  Just a bleak assessment of a relationship dead in the water.  "It's the same way that it's always been /  The dynamic to the relationship never changes / You can't get what you want from me, and I can't get what I need from you."  The narrator laments the paucity of language: "This is the only way I know how to say we're not in love anymore." Despite the grim picture painted at the end of Grace's throat-shredding, impassioned delivery, the real emotional punch ends it: "I'm not giving up on us."

Joy - Against Me!

Joy - Against Me!

2:12

Searching For a Former Clarity, 2005

Written by Laura Jane Grace, James Bowman, Andrew Seward, and Warren Oakes

An acoustic punk song delivered in a growling bellow.  Grace's introspective and sometimes abstruse lyrics describe an unyielding world.  "And somewhere off in the distance, rapidly advancing, is an onslaught of sorts / Young sirens wail in a skewed sense of glory / And the lions in the cages roar at the memory of fight."  Is it a conquering army?  Is the klaxon and chaos of a revolution?  Maybe it's all a jumble; the import thing is that joy can still be found somewhere, despite it all.

Fuckmylife666 - Against Me!

Fuckmylife666 - Against Me!

2:56

Transgender Dysphoria Blues, 2014

Written by Laura Jane Grace

Addressed to Grace's then-wife, this song deals with the heartbreaking, terrifying prospect of becoming who you believed you were always meant to be, even when that means you're now someone your spouse isn't necessarily in love with.  "All things made to be destroyed / All moments meant to pass."  It didn't work out for Grace, which adds a layer of pathos in retrospect.  Soaring, blistering punk rock.

Holy Shit! - Against Me!

Holy Shit! - Against Me!
2:11
Searching For a Former Clarity, 2005
Written by Laura Jane Grace, James Bowman, Andrew Seward, and Warren Oakes

This is a song of doubt.  The narrator, possibly an entertainer, a singer, realizes "the joke's on us."  She can no longer harness the initial passion that makes her sing the lyrics "sung at the top of our lungs desperately."  Grace's lyrics are often opaque, even abstruse.  But it's hard not to examine this song through the lens of the present, knowing of the identity hidden away at the time.  By the end of the song, the then-Thomas Gabel is snarling the lyrics with cartoon monster ferocity.  I love this band!