First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes
This is the first day of my life. I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you.
A simple love song for a simple man. This represents Yuri’s feelings towards Vivian.
Failure - Laura Marling
A preacher pushes me aside and asks to wash my sins. I said no, la la, if he made me in his image then he’s a failure too.
This is about how Yuri sees himself. It’s... not exactly the most positive light, obviously. It explores his skepticism with the world and his disappointment with not being more than what he is after his parents fought so hard to make a place for him in America.
Blue Lips - Regina Spektor
They started off beneath the knowledge tree.Then they chopped it down to make white picket fences.
A song about Yuri trying to find his place in life. He knows how hard it is to be a human being now, but he’s making his best go of it.
These Days - St Vincent
Please don't confront me with my failures; I have not forgotten them
A song about Yuri’s hesitance to act on his feelings about much of anything. He knows he’s wishy-washy and keeps to himself. He knows that he loves Vivian, but he’s not confident enough to tell her. He knows his business is relatively successful, but he’s not brave enough to branch out beyond it.
When - Dodie
Got to get it in my head; I'll never be sixteen again. I'm waiting to live, and waiting to love. Oh, it'll be over, and I'll still be asking when.
A song about being older and realizing his limitations. Yuri used to dream of more for himself, but it got to the point that he realized he may be asking too much... and yet he still spends so much time dreaming of the person that he could be while trying to accept the person that he is.
Why Try to Change Me Now? - Fiona Apple
Why can't I be more conventional? People talk and they stare, so I try
Yuri wants to be like a normal man in the city with a normal job and an American accent and a wife and 2.5 kids, but he can’t. He doesn’t necessarily dislike who he is, but he just doesn’t understand how all these things come so easily to others. He doesn’t always realize that what sets him apart from them is a positive, not a negative.
Ghosts of Corporate Future - Regina Spektor
The world is everlasting. It’s coming and it’s going.
A song about Yuri’s relationship with work and finding the balance between it and his personal life.
Trust Me - The Fray
We’re only taking turns holding this world
A song about his distrust of relationships, even though he so desperately wants them. The world was never kind to his family, so it’s hard for him to trust someone entirely. It also is a song that represents how he watched his father work himself to the bone in a dead-end job to try and keep their family above water without a positive outcome. Yuri’s success feels hollow because it couldn’t save his father from his fate.