Another song that was playing during a particularly surreal split with a girlfriend. Cut to – what, 1997, maybe 1998? Whatever year that the second album by Ben Folds Five (Whatever And Ever Amen) came out – and I’m in bed with my girlfriend as we watched The Chart Show, the Saturday morning chart show that soundtracked so many beginnings of weekends back then. Somehow, this song (which both of us liked, and found ourselves looking forward to, I remember) brought up the fact that we weren’t really going anywhere as a couple, and that maybe we should call it a day. Sticking with the apathetic tone of the song’s lyrics, the split at that point was surprisingly amiable and agreeable, some kind of “Hey, so this is what we’re doing, I guess? Okay, I suppose that’s okay” from both of us that, hours later, we were telling friends with a tone of “Did we actually have that conversation?” somewhere mixed in.
Within a week, everything had become drama and tears and shouting, of course. Maybe the calming qualities of Ben Folds should’ve been deployed in all of our conversations for some time afterwards, as a matter of safety and sanity-preservation.