Through My Wasted Days

Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Despair”

Karen O is iconic because she’s so good at projecting this badass, arty tough girl vibe, but she’s a great pop singer because she knows how and when to drop that pose and be vulnerable. Not just, “I’m going to sing a ballad now,” but like, truly wounded and shaken, raw nerve emotion. “Despair,” the big ballad on their fourth album, is a return to “Maps” territory, but it’s not a love song. It’s a little more powerful than that, somehow – she’s singing about years of pain and neuroses, and how it’s all been manageable through a powerful connection to someone else. This is her saying, basically – I could not make it without you. This is love, but it’s beyond romance. It’s something crucial, and there’s no other way of getting through – or even appreciating – that consuming feeling of despair.

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