Mixtapemotions

“Supposed to Be a Love Song” by Anson Seabra, Wednesday, July 10, 2024

 

The summer rainy season kicked off about a week ago and the music of Anson Seabra is my soundtrack for a rainy summer day. Getting into the 29-year-old singer-songwriter’s music has taken me some time. In my opinion, the melancholy piano and overly clear voice front and center in the production on the recordings that brought him to Internet fame are a slowly acquired taste. This is particularly true of his breakthrough, 2020’s Songs I Wrote in My Bedroom on songs like “Hindenburg Lover” and his follow-up EP 2021’s Feeling for My Life on songs like “Walked Through Hell.” Last year, however, Seabra released A Heart Is a Terrible Thing to Break. Seabra’s sound seemed to evolve after releasing Feeling for My Life, leading to a truly great indie rock 2023 record with instantly catchy melodies.

TWO HOPELESS STRANGERS IN A LOVE-DRUNK HAZE. What makes A Heart Is a Terrible Thing to Break different from Anson Seabra’s previous work is that this album is guitar-based rather than piano-based. Seabra’s voice is unique with guitar and it rests in a sweet register blending seamlessly with the electric and acoustic strings, whereas sometimes pianos make his voice seem glaringly eccentric, standing out above the pressed keys. The album mixes up Seabra’s musical styles from acoustic ballads to the R&B radio-friendly “Broken Boy” to the adult contemporary “Heartbreak Souvenirs.” The album’s variety also seems to form a cohesive sound, never giving listeners too much of one particular sound, but never straying wildly into musical or lyrical experimentation. Seabra’s songwriting voice is also part of the reason for the cohesion. Songs touch on similar themes, especially heartbreak and falling in love, without recycling phrases. Besides guitar, Seabra’s inclusion of drums on several songs makes A Heart Is a Terrible Thing to Break stand out in his discography. Most notable is today’s song, “Supposed to Be Love Song.” The drums add a disco flare to the song from the verse and make Seabra’s most catchy chorus.

THEY ALL SEEM TO SOUND THE SAME. Lyrically, “Supposed to Be a Love Song” is relatable. The lyrics paint lyrics of a picturesque romance, heading to Paris, meeting in Amsterdam, the hype that others put into the speaker, and the listener’s love story in “We were teenage dreams, we were movie stars.” It reminds me of every time it seemed the stars were aligning and sunshine and rainbows were ahead. How many movies with a perfect cast seem to fall apart? I remember watching Zoolander 2 and remarking, “It feels like the actors shot every scene at gunpoint.” There was no passion in the performance. It’s also happened in situations when I was planning the perfect vacation or the perfect rooming situation in college or the perfect work environment. And let’s not forget the time when America allowed same-sex couples to wed and it looked like we were set for a liberal future in 2016. I can’t say that all of the situations I’ve listed have a silver lining. Sure, work and college turned out okay and maybe it was for the better. “Supposed to Be a Love Song,” however, rewards the listener with an earworm. The speaker even admits in the bridge: “That’s okay / Too many love songs anyway / And they all seem to sound the same.” “Supposed to Be a Love Song” wouldn’t be as fun as a love song; it would be a cliche and the listener would have a harder time relating to it. “Supposed to Be a Love Song” expresses a complex emotion that is harder to capture in a song. And rather than a love song, it builds a community of listeners who can relate to it.