“‘Oh what the hell’ she says, ‘I just can’t win for losing’, and she lays back down.” I have a total admiration for the ear of the poet here. We’ll probably never know if he is depressed and creating an imaginary listener, or if he is close friends with an extremely depressed person, or if he has the ear to listen to someone who is living with a depressed person. And in the end, it doesn’t matter what the situation is. He is able to capture in a few words what some live for years trying to cope with and understand and never be able to put into words the depths of the pain. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, but if she feels bad then I do too. So I let her be.” The song is uplifting because he is able to put feelings into words that many people have struggled with. The song won’t end the struggle, but will help to define the ache. When we share the word diamonds in our deeply private conversations, we’ll be paying homage to Rob. And, in case you wondered, the music is the catchy pop music that Rob is famous for, so yes, you can sing along.In Give Me The Meltdown, the narrator gives permission to his loved one to melt down. He will accept the pain and will accept the fact that the “world is spinning round and round” and that the ‘secrets’ held deep inside the person having the meltdown may never come out. The narrator is simply willing to let the person in anguish ‘take it out on me’. Awesome. Many people take this role on and feel they’re all alone. The narrator here lets us know there are others who willingly bear the pain of loved ones. Shoutout also for Cradlesong (“love can be so cruel, but I will sing to you”) and Getting Late (“that’s the way it is, you can’t deny when it feels like this”). Rob Thomas