Comparison Essay: "Apartment" & "The Old Apartment"

Matthew Litchfield

November 20, 2012

 A  Poetry of Song

The feeling of nostalgia is often captures most accurately in music. In the case of “Apartment” (Young The Giant), and “The Old Apartment” (Bare Naked Ladies), nostalgia is caught in their respective filters of sadness and anger.

Both songs deal with the dark emotions surrounding buried memories in old apartments. They give a sense of defeat and mourning over failed relationships through their dejected imagery and somber diction. There is a resonance between the songs; in “Apartment” the narrator “hide[s] in a raincoat when things are falling apart,” and in “The Old Apartment” the narrator says there are “broken hearts and broken bones.”  These two passages demonstrate the hurt one can feel when they’re displaced from familiarity through their respective use of figurative emotional and physical brokenness.

Noteworthy are the tonal difference between the two songs. “The Old Apartment” talks about the narrator’s anger, describing his emotions through his actions, as when he “tore the phone out of the wall.” Conversely, “Apartment” shows the narrator’s ‘exile’ from his apartment, and makes use of subtle symbolism of rain to indicate the end of an era. Where “The Old Apartment” expresses the narrator’s anger at his former partner, “Apartment” describes the narrator’s sadness that his relationship has ended.

“Apartment” and “The Old Apartment” share a room filled with painful memories and emotions. The narrators tell their stories and characterize themselves as sad or angry (respectively) by describing how they interact with and remember their old apartments. The old conflicts of their now ended relationships are palpable in their acts of leaving and breaking into these places of their past.

Lyrics and Videos Below the Break!



“Apartment”

Young the Giant

After leaving my apartment I feel this cold inside me It howls all through the market It calls your name On my way to your apartment I write for fear of silence You carved a boat to sell my shadow Now I walk alone I hit the sidewalk and this is how it starts Hide in a raincoat when things are falling apart After leaving your apartment

I hear the coast by nightfall So sure to keep you dreaming You understood Oh, I know you understood Yes sir, it shows I was no good I hit the sidewalk and this is how it starts Hide in a raincoat when things are falling apart Cause sooner or later this is bound to stop Come on, let's savor what we're falling over After leaving your apartment I hear the coast...

“The Old Apartment”

Bare Naked Ladies

Broke into the old apartment This is where we used to live Broken glass, broke and hungry Broken hearts and broken bones This is where we used to live Why did you paint the walls? Why did you clean the floor? Why did you plaster over the hole I punched in the door? This is where we used to live Why did you keep the mousetrap? Why did you keep the dish rack? These things used to be mine I guess they still are, I want them back Broke into the old apartment Forty-two steps from the street Crooked landing, crooked landlord Narrow laneway filled with crooks This is where we used to live

Why did they pave the lawn? Why did they change the locks? Why did I have to break in, I only came here to talk This is where we used to live How is the neighbour downstairs? How is her temper this year? I turned up your TV and stomped on the floor just for fun I know we don't live here anymore We bought an old house on the Danforth She loves me and her body keeps me warm I'm happy there But this is where we used to live Broke into the old apartment Tore the phone out of the wall Only memories, fading memories Blending into dull tableaux I want them back