There's nothing quite like falling head over heels in love with a song you hear on the radio and asking someone if they like it and they sort of curl their lip and say, "You like that song?" as if you've just expressed a marked preference for moth balls rather than croutons in your Caesar salad.

"Yeah," you lamely reply, "The melody's so gorgeous.  It just kills me."

"I guess," they say.

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, this has pretty much been the reaction I've always faced when proclaiming my musical enthusiasms to my "hip" friends.  They wrinkle their noses and tell me that the band I like is a simulacrum of a simulacrum of a band that was much cooler, but they broke up after their bass player overdosed in 2003 and now one of them is working on a project with Mike Patton of Faith No More and blah, blah, blah.

Hey, that reminds me of a joke.

Q. How many indie rockers does it take to change a lightbulb?

A. (Snort!) What, you don't know? 

So, that said, I confess.  I love Keane.  I think their lead singer has a beautiful voice and their songs are the most wringingly wistful, romantic things to don a frilly shirt since young Stephen Patrick Morrissey pitched his first screaming band-practice tantrum in his mother's garage.  I don't care if their music is reviled by everyone but second graders, grannies, and parakeets.  When their songs come on the radio, I turn it up and sing along as loud as I can.  So nyah, nyah, nyah.

The song at the top of this post has been playing in a continuous loop in my head for days.  I want to stop strangers on the street and sing it to them.  It sounds like Joe Jackson covering the Cocteau Twins.  In Freddie Mercury's platforms.  Or something.

Have you ever heard a song that seemed to be talking to you in the words someone else would say to you?  I hear songs all the time that I identify with, but then some songs make you think about what another person would say to you if they knew how. 

And that's all I'm going to say about that. 

Lyrics below the fold, everybody sing!

Nothing in My Way

A turning tide
Lovers at a great divide
why d'you lie
When I know that you hurt inside?

And why'd you say
It's just another day, nothing in my way
I don't wanna go, I don't wanna stay
So there's nothing left to say?
And why'd you lie
When you wanna die, when you hurt inside
Don't know what you lie for anyway
Now there's nothing left to say

A tell-tale sign
You don't know where to draw the line

And why'd you say
It's just another day, nothing in my way
I don't wanna go, I don't wanna stay
So there's nothing left to say
And why'd you lie
When you wanna die, when you hurt inside
Don't know what you lie for anyway
Now there's nothing left to say

Well for a lonely soul, you're having such a nice time
For a lonely soul, you're having such a nice time
For a lonely soul, it seems to me that you're having such a nice time
You're having such a nice time

For a lonely soul, you're having such a nice time
For a lonely soul, you're having such a nice time
For a lonely soul, it seems to me that you're having such a nice time
You're having such a nice time