Ethnography - Brand New

Brand New's Jude Law and A Semester Abroad is about the hateful, vengeful wishes people have when someone leaves them. The female character has basically poisoned him and left him for dead, and as he drinks away his sorrows, he hopes that she remembers him. Though it would disappoint the boy if she didn't die a horrific death, he also wishes that she would spend as much time thinking about him as he is pining, hating, and feeling disappointed by her.

Jude Law And A Semester Abroad:

Whatever poison's in this bottle will leave me broken sore and stiff.
But it's the genie at the bottom who I'm sucking at. He owes me one last wish.
So here's a present to let you know I still exist.
I hope the next boy that you kiss has something terribly contagious on his lips.

But I got a plan (I got a plan)
Drink (drift) for forty days and forty nights.
A sip for every second-hand tick.
And for every time you fed me the line, "you mean so much to me...".
I'm without you.

[Chorus x2]
So tell all the English boys you meet, about the American boy back in the states.
The American boy you used to date.
Who would do anything you say.

(And even if her plane)
And even if her plane crashes tonight she'll find some way to disappoint me,
by not burning in the wreckage, or drowning at the bottom of the sea.
"Jess, I still taste you, thus reserve my right to hate you."
And all this empty space that you create does nothing for my flawless sense of style.

It's 8:45 (it's 8:45). The weather is getting better by the hour.
(Rains all the time) I hope it rains there all the time.
And if you ever said you miss me then don't say you never lied.
I'm without you.

[Chorus x2]
So tell all the English boys you meet, about the American boy back in the states.
The American boy you used to date.
Who would do anything you say.

Who would do anything you say

Never gonna get it right, you're never gonna get it [x7]

[x2 (previous singing continues in the background)]
No more songs about you
After this one, I am done
You are, you are, you're gone

[Chorus x2 (previous singing continues in the background)]
So tell all the English boys you meet, about the American boy back in the states.
The American boy you used to date.
Who would do anything you say.

Magazines describes a boys idolization of a famous woman. He only knows her through magazines and TV and yet he is such a love sick, heartfelt type of boy, that he still lies in wait for her. He idolizes her and their potential relationship, believing that women may be interested in "broken hearted losers," and he hopes that that kind of over-emotional devotion is something his crush will take pity on so that they will be together.

Magazines:

Laetitia, you destroy me,
so I can't see why I feel so lonely
when you and me could be forever
perfectly perfect together. I know.
Broken down in my dead bedroom,
stuttering to pictures of you.
I know that you can always see me.
I saw you staring through my TV last night.

So I'll leave the door open all night,
in case you decide you want to stop on by.
Because you got to know who's been singing that song on the radio.
The one that goes...(the one that goes...)

My friends all call me crazy cause I
stay up late anticipating,
and planning for the day I sweep you
off your feet, I'd never leave you alone.
Laetitia, you got my hand shaking,
I'm begging you oh baby please stop breaking
my heart because I got the feeling
that you and I will never really get it on.

So I'll leave the door open all night,
in case you decide you want to stop on by.
Because you got to know who's been singing that song on the radio.
The one that goes...(the one that goes...)

Girl, come to me.
The only broken-hearted loser you'll ever need,
or I'll be left alone forever with my magazines.

Come to me.
The only broken-hearted loser you'll ever need,
or I'll be left alone forever with my magazines.

Girl, come to me.
The only broken-hearted loser you'll ever need,
or I'll be left alone forever with my magazines.

Girl, come to me.
The only broken-hearted loser you'll ever need,
or I'll be left alone forever…

Laetitia, you destroy me,
so I can see why I feel so lonely
when you and me could be forever
perfectly perfect together. I know.

In Seventy Times 7, Jesse Lacey sings about how a friend betrayed him by taking his girl. Suddenly their friendship seems to be nothing but a sham, and he feels so hurt and angry he hopes his friend dies. He finally sees him for what he really is, but instead of feeling clarity, feels hurt, betrayed, and foolish. But it is the friend who has been lowly and deserves to crash his car. I will contrast this song about two people fighting over someone of the opposite gender with Paramore's Misery Business.

Seventy Times 7:

Back in school they never taught us what we needed to know,
like how to deal with despair, or someone breaking your heart.
For twelve years I've held it all together but a night like this is begging to pull me apart.
I played it quiet, left you deep in conversation.
I felt uncool and hung out around the kitchen.
I remember I kept thinking that I know you never would,
and now I know I want to kill you like only a best friend could.

Everyone's caught on to everything you do
Everyone's caught on to.

As if this happening wasn't enough I got to go
and write a song just to remind myself how bad it sucked.
Ignore the sun, the cover's over my head.
I wrote a message on my pillow that says, "Jesse, stay asleep in bed."
So don't apologize. I hope you choke and die.
Search your cell for something with which to hang yourself.
They say you need to pray if you want to go to heaven
but they don't tell you what to say when your whole life has gone to hell.

Everyone's caught on to everything you do
Everyone's caught on to
And everyone's caught on to everything you do (And I can't let you, let me down again.)
Everyone's caught on to (And I can't let you, let me down again)

So, is that what you call a getaway?
Tell me what you got away with.
Cause I've seen more spine in jellyfish.
I've seen more guts in eleven-year-old kids.
Have another drink and drive yourself home.
I hope there's ice on all the roads.
And you can think of me when you forget your seatbelt,
and again when your head goes through the windshield.

And is that what you call tact?
You're as subtle as a brick in the small of my back.
So let's end this call, and end this conversation.
and is that what you call a getaway?
well tell me what you got away with.
cause you left the frays from the ties you severed
when you say best friends means friends forever

So, is that what you call a getaway?
Well tell me what you got away with.
Cause I've seen more spine in jellyfish.
I've seen more guts in eleven-year-old kids.
Have another drink and drive yourself home.
I hope there's ice on all the roads.
And you can think of me when you forget your seatbelt,
and again when your head goes through the windshield.

Everyone's caught on to everything you do (And I can't let you, let me down again)
Everyone's caught on to (And I can't let you, let me down again)
And everyone's caught on to everything you do (And I can't let you, let me down again)
Everyone's caught on to (And I can't let you, let me down again)