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Eleven’s Breakfast Jams isn’t pro-Melvin

Long post ahead: Just gonna lay out the notable songs on El’s playlist that have patterns of breaking up, bad/ill-fitting relationships, getting out/ wanting to get out of bad/ill-fitting relationships, dead love, faking, insecurity, uncertainty—I think that mainly covers it (also with intermingled Brenner significance for some).

1. Shut Up and Let Me Go, The Ting Tings (Pretty much this whole song is damning: “This hurts, I tell you so/ For the last time you will kiss my lips/ Now shut up and let me go” + “Now oh so easily you’re over me/ Gone is love/ It’s you that ought to be holding me/ I’m not containable/ This time love is not sustainable” + “I ain’t fakin’ this” + “This hurts what I can’t show… For the last time you have me in bits/ For fear of living in regret/ I’ve changed since from when we first met” + “It’s me that ought to be moving on/ You’re not adorable/ I want something un-ignorable”)

We’re off to a great start.

2. Revenge, Patti Smith (“Needed you, you withdrew/ I was so forsaken/ Ah, but now the tables have turned, my move/ I believe I'll be taking my revenge” + “Ah, the sands and hands of time have run out/ Run out, ah you better face it/ Ah, this thing’s run amok” + “For the ghosts of our love have dried, have died/ There’s no use faking it.” The whole song is ‘no BS, no-nonsense, I make the rules here.’ Very much “I dump your ass.” But there’s also the undeniable ‘dead love’ aspect too.)

3. Dog Days Are Over, Florence + The Machine (About a bad relationship being over. The phrase ‘dog days are over’ itself comes from an idiom that refers to the hot days between July and August—the end of a harsh period of time.)

4. Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin (Directly from songfacts: about “a lovelorn woman so enraptured by her man that she's willing to break off yet another piece of her heart if only he will take it.” It doesn’t help that ‘lovelorn’ means to be unhappy because of unrequited love.)

5. Don’t Get Me Wrong, Pretenders (Again, songfacts: “this song describes the complexities of love from a female perspective - she’s inconsistent, but wonderful, and wants her lover to know that he shouldn’t get too worked up, because she could change quickly.” Basically, don’t get too excited because I could change my mind. Unstable grounds.)

6. Bulletproof, La Roux (About telling a past lover she is no longer interested in taking him back: “I’ve been there, done that, messed around/ I’m having fun, don’t put me down/ I’ll never let you sweep me off my feet/ I won’t let you in again” + “This time, baby, I’ll be bulletproof/ I won’t let you turn around/ And tell me now I’m much too proud/ To walk away from something when it's dead”)

7. Don’t, Larkin Poe (“Don’t, Honey, don’t bust down my door/ Tellin’ me what I should do/ You’ve been around time and again/ But you don’t give a damn about where I've been” + “Don’t try to lie/ Don’t try to tell me/ Don’t try to buy me/ Don’t try to sell me/ (No) I know what I am/ (Lie) I know what I need.” This resonates more so with El toward Brenner to me. But I couldn’t help but think of Mike’s and Brenner’s superhero comparisons—with Mike constantly telling her she is a superhero despite her not wanting that. And the lying part. Also would refer to El coming into her own and moving past lies and things she doesn’t want, knowing instead what she is and needs.)

8. You’re No Good, Linda Ronstadt (Songfacts: About a woman who comes to the conclusion that the guy she broke up with was trouble from the start, but, at the same time, realizes she has done bad things to him as well. Being toxic to each other.)

9. Head Over Heels, The Go-Go’s (More songfacts: Written by The Go-Go’s Kathy Valentine and Charlotte Caffey. Valentine describes this song as “one where I had a lot of phrases I’d written down, and they started connecting. Things like ‘One hand is reaching out, and one's just hanging on,’ and ‘Seems like my weaknesses just keep going strong’ were really about self reflecting and a dawning awareness that the band and certain areas of life were getting kind of out of control." Works as a self-awareness toward El’s relationship with Mike and realizing exactly what Brenner has put her through/ used her for.)

10. Dreams, Fleetwood Mac - Actually not songfacts, wow. Taken from storyofsong :

This is just a big Bruh moment, geez

11. Don’t Wanna Fight, Alabama Shakes (About seemingly endless fights that go on in a relationship filled with disagreements: “My life, your life/ Don’t cross them lines/ What you like, what I like/ Why can’t we both be right?/ Attacking, defending/ Until there’s nothing left worth winning”)

12. Let Me Go, HAIM (Whole song shows an unhealthy relationship that the couple has a hard time letting go of. The singer wants to be ‘set free’ from her lover and yet stay with him—because she feels like “nothing” without him. This one lyric pretty much sums up the most important takeaway of the song: “together we are not one/ We are nothing but holding on and on”)

13. Mind, Jack Ü (Mind games are being played, looks like one person is taking the relationship seriously and the other isn’t—another very unhealthy dynamic. The lyrics seem to suggest a repetitive desire to show the unserious person ‘how to love again’)

14. Cannonball, The Breeders (Songfacts: The Breeders’ Kim Deal says not to read into the song too much, but describes using the metaphor of a cannonball “to indicate a person who is reckless in love.” I mark this as an unhealthy relationship song for El simply because of the lyric “I’ll be your whatever you want.” That is a reckless thing to think in a relationship and it robs you of your sense of individuality. Reminds me of Max telling El she needs to try things on and see what feels like her. Not Hopper, not Mike, “You.” Ultimately doing herself a favor to begin being what she wants. This could also connect to her time with Brenner, being whatever he wanted her to be while he worked his father/daughter manipulation.)

15. Kept Me Crying, HAIM (specifically chose this one to cover here)

16. Stuck, The Aces (also covered this one here)

17. Jolene, Dolly Parton (It’s the insecure, begging tone of the song that gets me. You shouldn’t have to worry about your significant other leaving you for someone else. And I’m sure this is referring to when El saw Max with Mike in s2, but I have seen people talk/ joke about it being about Will. Imagine though, the lyric “He talks about you in his sleep” would be such a repressed Michael Wheeler slip-up because he definitely would not be dreaming of Max. BUT, I really don’t think El would respond to Will’s feelings in such a pleading way. Especially not at this point in the series. When she saw Mike with Max and knocked her off her skateboard, El was acting jealous and possessive. Fits better. Regardless, this is not a happy, secure love song.)

I’m not gonna stop laughing about Will as Jolene for awhile though

18. Holding Out For a Hero, Bonnie Tyler (Not a relationship song but I can still easily apply it to El and Mike: The song is like a requirement list for a man who needs to defy impossible standards. It’s reminiscent of El’s overly romanticized soap operas. El expected her relationship with Mike to be something it couldn’t be, because he cannot possibly be what she wants/ thinks she wants. Cannot help but laugh at the “I need a Superman to sweep me off my feet” lyric too.)

✨Bonus✨

Papa Don’t Preach. The ‘Daddy I love him song.’

“Daddy if you could only see

Just how good he’s been treating me

You’d give us your blessing right now

‘Cause we are in love”

lol Hopper would vomit