Sunday Music: Stop Making This Hurt

Jack Antonoff and Bleachers are back. This one is just a rising well of emotions, full of 80s Jersey nostalgia, production tricks, and evocative lyrics.

Three of those things to point out (in reverse order):

Evocative lyrics: I’m not sure I can tell you what this song is about (the video won’t help), but it all feels like a purge. Behold, the chorus, “stop making this hurt / say goodbye like you mean it / stop tryin’ on this hurt / just say goodbye like you mean it.”

Production tricks: listen on headphones and feel the bump up and down in volume between the different sections of the song.

80s Jersey Nostalgia: I’ll break it down – the keyboard and guitar sounds, the Springsteen vibe (tell me you don’t hear a little “Hungry Heart” or “Born to Run” in this, from the desperation in the vocal performance to the horns), to the… I don’t know, he says Jersey and I’m suddenly standing on a boardwalk with a Springsteen tape thinking, “Ok, I get it.” Go with me on this one.

Antonoff knows what he’s doing. This is a masterclass on so many levels, and despite all the influences, it still feels uniquely his own.

Special shout-out to the bridge into the last chorus. (Beautiful).

But if we take the sadness out of Saturday nightI wonder what we’ll be left with, anything worth the fight?I wanna run from the darkness, wanna shout at the lightIt’s coming over me nowTwo three four fiveOh god, we barely survivedJust say goodbye like you mean it

Stop making this hurtJust say goodbye like you mean it…