I Really Don't Want to Like Grouplove...

...and let's be clear, I don't love them, or even really like them that much.  I don't know their names, don't anxiously await their next record, and wouldn't go see them if they played in town.  For all I know or care, they've already broken up.  Nevertheless, they had this minor hit last year in "TongueTied," which, despite the cringe-worthy title and hackneyed girl's solo at the bridge ("like Peter Pan up in the sky"?  Really?  Kids these days...), nonetheless tickled me just right, and I ended up downloading their one album.

Which I quickly regretted.  The whole record felt like watered-down Arcade Fire wannabes, stacked back-to-back with every Indie-rock cliche of the past 10 years, with lyrics that quickly gave them away as inexperienced, privileged white children sans real problems ("lobster and white label"? c'mon kids...); immature youth who still find some transgressive thrill in singing about speeding and skinny-dipping; yet another in-crowd masquerading as an out-crowd; self-indulgent in that way only teenagers can be.

And...that's kinda why I like them.  For whatever reason, I put them on while I was grading papers this morning, and they just sorta hit the spot; there was just this un-selfaware, youthful earnestness about it, sung with the genuine joy of late-adolescents who haven't yet realized that every new idea is already old, kids who know angst but still have yet to experience a truly devestating heart-break.

For when I was only a little younger, I still insisted that heart-break was an essential part of the human tragedy, that anyone who hasn't ever been rejected or shot-down still hadn't truly experienced life, did not have real knowledge, was not yet a fully fleshed-out human being.  And to a certain extent I still believe that...

And yet...

Some of these heart-breaks, they're just so soul-searing, so torturous, that one starts to wonder if maybe the knowledge gained from 'em is even worth it.  I used to jealously disdain the handsome men and gorgeous women who'd never been broken, who didn't understand, or couldn't empathize.  But now, I say just let the babies have their bottle.  If they haven't experienced the pain, then let them be, don't be a sadist, just pat them on the head and leave them on their way.

It's like the one time a student wrote me a paper on Australia, and she noted at one point how everyone Down Under has access to health care, and she casually wondered aloud what it would be like if America had universal healthcare; and I just sat there, gaping in awe, at how this girl had somehow blissfully avoided one of the most hotly-argued debates of her time.  I skipped right over disdain at her political ignorance to envy--how had she stayed in her bubble, and how could I get in?

To be perfectly clear: I am strenuously opposed to political ignorance, and I think everyone needs to experience true heartbreak at least once in their life.  But sweet mercy, don't be in such a hurry to inflict such knowledge on anyone!  God knew that Adam and Eve would partake of the fruit themselves, in good time, without him having to force it on them.

The folks in Grouplove still haven't tasted it, and at this point, I'm content to let them be.  Besides, I suspect that their naivety is strictly temporary, that they'll all learn soon enough, anyways.  No need to rush them.  Let being "Tongue-Tied" remain the extent of their angst for now.