Ok friends, halt your scrolling, because I’m about to tell you why I really like the song Today Today by Jack Stauber.
So when Jack Stauber extends micropops he typically gives them a Shit Ton Of Melodies, right? With almost all of them, there’s a set pattern of instrumental opener -> original song -> new chorus -> repeat a bit probably with a break at some point -> confusing-ass ending. And don’t get me wrong, this sounds good as fuck, but it leaves Today Today feeling different and special, as it’s so unapologetically itself. The progression really goes instrumental opener -> Today Today by Jack Stauber -> Today Today by Jack Stauber 2: real sad boy hours -> Today Today by Jack Stauber 3: what
Next up I gotta say, this song is probably the easiest to relate to out of all the Stauber Songs. The starting part simply about a normal, uninteresting day isn’t exactly an uncommon experience, and the borderline emotionless instrumental fuels this. Of course, the teardrops bit betrays the neutrality a bit, and the next verse has Appropriately Sad Ambient Samples in it, underscoring the uninterest. But man, then it progresses into the hopeful version of the melody, and like. Wow. Holy shit? I can’t really describe how this feels to listen to, but it’s definitely at least a *bit* more emotional.
My final point about how fucking good this song is is the lyrics department. The first verse, being purely about normal days, describes the day as “stuck between yesterday and tomorrow”, and honestly that is the Biggest Mood. Next, the singer describes having “everything to go” and “everywhere to do”, both referring to the business of everyday life and showing a shit ton of disinterest, given the verb switcharoo. The second verse shows a natural progression of this disinterest (ok let’s be real every part of this song is natural progression), saying that it’s the day to “seem like the green light burned out”, basically meaning that the mundanity got to whoever the singer is singing about, putting them in a depressive mindset. Next, the singer says “forget what your move was about”, likely meaning that whoever the song is about doesn’t even know why they’re doing whatever they’re doing anymore. This is where most analyses end, simply saying that it’s about depression. The thing about that interpretation is that it’s completely ignoring the entire third verse. To be fair, this is a pretty surreal verse, but I’ve listened to this song enough to at least get a vague grasp. The line saying that this particular today today “is one of those days that carries you slowly to next time” probably isn’t as much about depression, and probably shows an at least extant level of acceptance with uninteresting days, citing their Necessary Quality. Finally, I gotta say, I fucking love the last line, “part of me is repeatedly given”. This Is A Big Deal. First of all, this implies that at least someone is supporting whoever has the Boredom Depression that this song is about. Second of all, this is the only first person line in the entire song. The actual singer is the one who’s supporting the subject of the song, and obviously that’s cool as fuck, but think about what it represents. Throughout the whole song, everything has gotten more and more personal, from a simple song about a boring day to a song about recovering from a depressive mindset, culminating in a completely personal, empathetic moment. And if that isn’t a reason to love this song, I don’t know what is.
I’d like to leave you on one nice final note. At the end of the first two verses, the chorus is sung, which is “count your teardrops, all 113 of them, and sing”. This is a reference to the 113 videos on Jack’s channel when what would become the full song was released, though that’s not terribly important. What matters here is that at the last verse this chorus is not sung, instead leaving you with a repeating singing melody. Want to know why? Because the target of the song no longer has a ridiculous amount of teardrops to count. They don’t have depression anymore, and all that’s left to do is sing,
