Earworm of the Week: Somebody, by Depeche Mode

Last week, Denisa and I took the kids down to Portland and places in between to run a few errands. As we were driving, I had my iPod on, shuffling through my music, when I came across a strange song I didn’t remember putting on there. It started out with what sounded like a heartbeat and some odd ambient noise. Typically, I’d just hit Next and go on to something more immediately rewarding, but I wondered what the song was. My guess was that it was Halloween sound effects I loaded on about 10 years ago, and I wanted to know if my guess was right or not, so I let it play.

Then singing started, and I was disappointed to discover I had been wrong. I hit Next without thinking, and then paused as the beginning of the actual singing caught up with my brain. I knew that song, didn’t I? (It’s a sign of how much music I have when I can put favorite songs on my iPod and then forget they were favorites in the first place.) I hit back to listen again and asked Denisa to read off what song it was.

“Somebody,” by Depeche Mode

It’s been stuck in my head since Friday, playing pretty much non-stop. I don’t particularly mind in this case. It’s a nice song, and I did some research into it to find out more about it–that it was written by the singer, for one thing (I’m always a bigger fan of a song if I know the performer wrote it as well as performed it), and it’s a really interesting contrast between saccharine and sarcasm.

You’ve got this very nice vocal/piano track from a group where I’m much more used to hearing synthesizers and drumbeats. The sentiment is all lovely, but then at the end it adds “Though things like this make me sick, in a case like this, I’ll get away with it.” That just confusing enough to make you wonder if he was serious or not the whole time, and to me it’s thrown in there to give the group an out. To let them have a sincere song that’s full of longing and hope for what they want in a relationship, but to be able to maintain there image of a new wave pop band. In many ways, it reminds me of Extreme’s More than Words:

Really, “Somebody” expresses a lot of what I was looking for out of a relationship, both when I first heard it back in the day and now when I heard it again. The modern day Bryce felt very connected to the 80s/90s Bryce for a moment. Interesting how a thing like a song can do that so quickly and so easily. No need for anything messy like time travel–songs can work so much better. Here are the rest of the lyrics, in case you’re curious:

I want somebody to share

Share the rest of my life

Share my innermost thoughts

Know my intimate details

Someone who’ll stand by my side

And give me support

And in return

She’ll get my support

She will listen to me

When I want to speak

About the world we live in

And life in general

Though my views may be wrong

They may even be perverted

She will hear me out

And won’t easily be converted

To my way of thinking

In fact she’ll often disagree

But at the end of it all

She will understand me

I want somebody who cares

For me passionately

With every thought and with every breath

Someone who’ll help me see things

In a different light

All the things I detest

I will almost like

I don’t want to be tied

To anyone’s strings

I’m carefully trying to steer clear

Of those things

But when I’m asleep

I want somebody

Who will put their arms around me

And kiss me tenderly

Though things like this

Make me sick

In a case like this

I’ll get away with it

And that’s your bit of sappy 80s nostalgia for today. Enjoy.