Breakup Albums (8/4/2024)

  I love breakup albums. Perhaps it has to do with breakups having a large large effect on my life, or perhaps I just relate extremely with the emotions that come with a breakup, or perhaps I just sadistically enjoy reliving those emotions, but for some reason breakup albums always end up being a type of music that enjoy. Some albums I might even think are just ok until I find out that they are actually breakup albums, and then they get elevated to a whole new level.

For example, one of my favorite albums ever, Currents by Tame Impala, was elevated to one of my favorite albums after I really started listening to the lyrics and understanding that it is, fundamentally, a break up album. The character of the album goes through so many emotions and each part of the album is just written so well that it thematically makes sense.

Another album that I want to highlight is the recent NxWorries release, Why Lawd? NxWorries is a duo group consisting of Anderson .Paak and producter Knxwledge, and while it is not only a breakup album it certainly has much to do with Anderson .Paak's more recent separation from his wife.

Anderson .Paak is not a great person, at least when it comes to love. He is a player and a cheater and someone who appears to not be able to control his impulses well, but he is still a human and he feels remorse and heavy emotion as a consequence of his actions. Yes, he cheats and he enjoys it and he also completely deserved to have his wife leave him, but the way that he is able to convey it along with the music is just so enticing to hear. It's filled with heartbreak and anger, yet also with bravado and charisma. I don't know if most things can or will be understood through just one listen, but the more you listen and the more that you feel (not just hear) each lyric, the better the album becomes.

And finally to round things out, I'll list off two albums that occupy a similar place in my mind: Atlanta Millionare's Club by Faye Webster and Self Titled by Natalie Prass.

The content in each of these albums vary slightly, but they are both undeniably breakup albums. Atlanta Millionare's Club deals with the feelings that Webster feels post breakup, but also isn't always neccesarily focused into a direct narrative. It is an album with the theme of a breakup. However, Natalie Prass' self titled debut spins a direct story, one of her being cheated on and then her reactions to that event.

The reason why I put them together is that, for some reason, I associate these two album's sounds pretty closely. I don't know if its the instrumentals or the voices or what, but I get a similar feeling and vibe from each of these two albums. I can see why some people may argue that these two albums have nothing to do with each other, both in approach and even in the genres that they are, but to me they are the two parts of a duology.

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