39. Girlpool - “Chinatown”

This song is so simple yet poignant. It’s like taking a lonely stroll through the park at dusk, hands in your pocket, leaves swirling around in the slight breeze, mimicking your head as it swirls in the grips of self-reflection. It’s just you and yourself, an internal dialogue going back and forth, questions asked only to evaporate as soon as they escape, questions offered up like prayers, prayers to a god you don’t believe in, because you killed him, and now you’re god. So they just remain unanswered. And it’s okay, because maybe there are no answers. It’s rhetorical existentialism or quiescent existentialism. It’s an honest, raw and beautiful moment that any young person can relate to, with lines like “I am nervous for tomorrow and today” or “Do you get restless when you realize you’re alive”. Being alive is a responsibility, and we’re all just trying to find our place in the world. The only problem is we either have to change ourselves or the world in the process, and the one is so much easier than the other.