“The Upsides” by The Wonder Years, shockingly, has turned 10 years old.
So, we went to high school from 2005 to 2009. I think that four year stretch of music can be best summed up by considering the following: nu-metal was now dead (the last gasp of life being Hoobastank’s Grammy nomination in 2005), the folk craze wouldn’t fully arrive until 2009 (with the release of Mumford and Son’s “Sigh No More”), and during this void, Hawthorne Heights was invited to bring its unique brand of extreme Midwest VFW energy to Jimmy Kimmel Live and other late-night programs.
Of course, sad music existed before the aughts, I’m just surprised how casually glorified the My Chemical Romance years were in real-time. I’m surprised there was a store at the mall that was able to cash in on whatever the whole thing was. I’m surprised parents didn’t think something was up when MCR released its video for “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” given how sickly Gerard Way looked.
I’m surprised they didn’t read the title to the song, come to think of it.
All of this is why listening to “The Upsides” by The Wonder Years for the first time was so thrilling.
That album, shockingly, just turned 10 years old. The opening lyrics still demand your attention: “I’m not sad anymore, I’m just tired of this place.”
But it’s track 8 on the album, “Melrose Diner,” that probably best exemplifies what Allmusic called “bleeding humanity” at the time. The refrain, in part, goes: “I guess I’m just down. I guess I’ll be honest, I could use you around.” A few lines later, in the bridge: “My friends all say he’s just a B-rate version of me. He’s stuck on video games and weed — they’re just trying to help me get to sleep. My friends all say you’re sitting way too close to me, that I should just get up and leave, it’s like I’m weighed down to the seat. My friends all say he’s just a broke dick version of me — they’re just trying to help me get some sleep, I know he’s what you need.”
Use of the phrase “broke dick” aside, I think there’s something to be said for everything going on in Melrose:
The admission of sadness
The acknowledgment of a support system, hinting that the sadness had been discussed, at least, with a close circle of friends at some point
A self-awareness that allows the narrator to tell the former lover that he knows she’s in a better place, he just needs to talk this out, if only to hear himself say it
Melrose, and The Upsides in general, felt new and important in the wake of the “Cute (Without The E)” era, a time where being emotional was the first and only step in the process of fandom. It felt like the first time anyone had questioned that process and considered what might come next. It felt like the first time anyone had addressed it in any real or meaningful way at all.
-stream or download our “Upsides” episode below-
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