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"Breaking Hearts" Tonal Analysis

In the song “Breaking Hearts” by James Vincent McMorrow, the songwriter depicts the image of a man who cares little about love and who is not fond of growing attached to anyone, preferring to live a life of emotional isolation. The speaker in this song has trained himself to refuse affection and be unaffected by the broken hearted girls he leaves behind. Providing the image of an uncaring, heartless man in “Breaking Hearts”, James Vincent McMorrow uses consistent characterization, purposeful diction, and heartless figurative language to portray the tone of the speaker as insensitive disinterest and show how he has “been breaking hearts for far too long”.

   

In this song, James Vincent McMorrow consistently uses characterization to describe the speaker of the song. The speaker is shown as a man who goes from one girl to another, refusing to get attached to just one. “See I’ve been breaking hearts for far too long” the speaker says, showing that this is a regular practice of his; he has become accustomed to never growing attached to any particular girl. Love isn’t an interest of the speaker, in fact he says “when it comes to dying, I’ll do it on my own”, essentially saying he’d rather die alone than live a happy life with one woman. The speaker also shows how little he lusts after love when he says: “you can stop your crying, I’m never coming back”. As he speaks to the audience, in this case a broken hearted girl, he seems to feel no sympathy towards her emotions. Instead he tosses her aside, dismissing her like the rest of the girls he refuses to grow fond of. McMorrow uses persistent characterization of the speaker throughout the entire song to stress the speaker’s disinterest in a serious relationship and to depict the speaker’s tone of insensitivity.

    Aside from consistent characterization, James Vincent McMorrow also utilizes purposeful diction; he chooses specific words to use to continually serve as a tool to show the speaker’s tone of disinterest. The speaker says “I’m gonna find a city, call the streets my own” to provide the image of a man who wants power and control, over a city or over his emotions.  He doesn’t want to lose control over his heart, thus the reason that he doesn’t allow himself to connect emotionally with any girl he meets. “I just can’t take the pressure, it’s all too much for me” the speaker says. Using the word pressure allows for us to see that to him, love isn’t a luxury but a stressful task with unpleasant results. The speaker finds it easier to stay emotionally detached than to endure the “pressure” of a relationship. The speaker also says “when I need the shelter, I’ll be knocking on your door”, depicting more clearly how the speaker uses woman but never commits to them. When he feels lonely, he knows that no matter how much he hurt that girl before, he can rely on her to keep him company. She can provide him “shelter” from the loneliness of his emotionless love life. The diction and specific choice of words helps to portray the speaker’s disinterested and uncaring tone.

    The last device that James Vincent McMorrow uses to show the speaker’s insensitive disinterest in love is heartless and insensitive figurative language. The commonly used phrase in this song, “I’ve been breaking hearts” is an example of figurative language; the speaker is not literally breaking girls’ hearts, but rather breaking them down emotionally due to his lack of commitment and love. He says “I’m gonna find a city, drink until it’s gone”. The city would not actually disappear, but the speaker would forget any girls he has grown even slightly attached to and the rest of the city, as he continues to drink until he becomes numb. “The girls they look so pretty, they’re all just empty shells to me” the speaker says, using a metaphor comparing the girls to empty shells since he doesn’t care what emotional damage he creates for the women he uses, he only recognizes their physical appearance. These literary devices are scattered around the song and serve to clearly show the speaker’s tone of insensitivity.

    In the song “Breaking Hearts” by James Vincent McMorrow, the speaker’s tone of insensitive disinterest is portraying by consistent characterization, purposeful diction, and frequent figurative language. The speaker’s tone is not necessarily the same as the songwriter’s tone, and in this case, they do differ. The speaker’s tone is genuine disinterest in a serious love life while the songwriter’s tone is somewhat mocking and condescending towards the speaker, or any man who treats women this way.

Binary Thesis: Gravity & Black and Blue

Though both Sara Bareilles' "Gravity" and Ingrid Michaelson's "Black and Blue" display the image of an unhealthy relationship, Bareilles uses conflicted hyperbole and metaphor to show the speaker's struggle within herself to leave her love while Michaelson utilizes resentful imagery to portray the speaker's frustration with her partner to show how she is finished with the harmful relationship.

Ingrid Michaelson "Human Again" Album Review

Ingrid Michaelson is an indie-pop singer/songwriter who has had music featured on many popular television shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Pretty Little Liars, and One Tree Hill. and commercials. She began recording her own music in 2002 in New York, using social networking to promote her music, which is how music producers found her. Her music has been choreographed to and is very popular in the dance world, being featured on shows like So You Think You Can Dance. Ingrid's music has catchy choruses and meaningful, story-telling lyrics.

Human Again is Michaelson's fifth studio album. It was released in 2012 and features 15 unique tracks that show off Ingrid's style. Many of the songs focus around love and relationships, both the good and the bad aspects of them. Some songs have a slow steady rhythm while others are fast and upbeat. Each song compliments the rest, and they all work together to form a cohesive album.

The album begins with "Fire", featuring strings, piano and pounding drums. "This is War" follows, continuing a pattern of relationships that are falling apart. On a happier, more loving note, "Keep Warm" displays themes of new love, as does "How We Love". "Ribbons" talks about broken promises made by a boy, and a girl left in the dust. The track "Black and Blue" has an almost electric sounding beat, and is one of the more unique tracks on the album.
Ingrid plans on releasing a new album, Lights Out, in April of 2014. If it is anything like this album, it will be filled with love-struck tunes, piano and soft beats, and meaningful words. "Human Again" is a unique and heartfelt album that would satisfy any indie music lover.

Song Analysis 1

Lyrics: "Landfill" by Daughter

Portraying the image of a relationship gone wrong in "Landfill", Daughter uses loathsome imagery, emotional irony, and bitter metaphors to display the horrific acts of a boy who uses an innocent girl and the internal conflict of "torturous" emotions within herself.

In this song, Daughter utilizes countless examples of loathsome imagery to show the hateful emotions the speaker now harbors for a boy who used her. “So leave me in the cold / wait until the snow covers me up” she commands, already knowing that the boy no longer cares about her and will leave her no matter what. The majority of Daughter’s lyrics contain imagery that portray the harsh feeling the speaker feels towards her past lover. She feels as though the boy no longer cares about her at all, like he couldn’t care less what happens to her now that he is through with her. She shows how uncaring he is when she says: “leave me on the tracks / to wait until the morning train arrives.” Clearly, the speaker holds a lot of resentful feelings towards the boy, and the lyrics show that she believes that now he has left her, he wouldn’t even mind if she disappear completely. To her, it seems her presence has already disappeared from his mind. He gave her false hope and then chose to “leave [her] at the altar / knowing all the things [he] just escaped.”

Along with loathsome imagery, Daughter also uses emotional irony to display the conflicting feelings of the deeply hurt speaker. The speaker proclaims: “I love you so much / but I hate your guts.” The girl has been hurt badly by the boy she used to love, and it causes internal conflict between her head and her heart. She knows that she should hate him, and most of her does resent him for being so awful to her and leaving her so suddenly. But another, very small part of her conscious doesn’t want to give up the love she has for him. She is holding on to the memories that she once had with him. It is so ironic because the listener knows how much the speaker despises her past lover, so you would not expect her to still love him as well. Daughter portrays this mysterious past boy as a heartless human when the speaker says, “wipe away your tear stains / thought you said you didn’t feel pain.”

The final device that was used by Daughter when writing this song was bitter metaphor. The speaker is very resentful and bitter, for she has a mix of emotions and many of them are hatred towards the boy she used to love. “Throw me in a landfill / don’t think about the consequences” the speaker says, comparing herself to a piece of trash in the eyes of the boy she used to know so well. The boy just tosses her aside, as if she was some useless piece of garbage. She speaks indirectly to the boy when she says: “Throw me in the water / don’t think about the splash I will create.” The speaker knows that the boy just used her and the left, not giving a second thought to the outcome of his terrible actions. He isn’t literally throwing her in the water, but rather metaphorically tossing her aside, as he is done with her and doesn’t want anything to do with her. Daughter compares the girl to things that no one would give a second thought to, just like the boy isn’t giving a second thought to her either. Instead he chooses to “walk away / [and] catch up with the sunrise.”

Showing how a boy used and mistreated the speaker, Daughter utilizes loathsome imagery, emotional irony, and bitter metaphor to provide the image of a girl, hopelessly conflicted between her head and her heart, scarred by the harsh acts of a lover who just intended to use her.

Theme-Genre Declaration

The theme-genre combination I have chosen is Love and Heartbreak in Indie Music.

I chose this combination because indie music is the type of music I listen to most. Love and heartbreak are both very prevalent themes in this genre, so I knew I would not have a limited selection of songs to choose from. The theme love and heartbreak allows me to talk about both the good and the bad aspects of relationships.