Are you done with that? You hardly ate any of your fries. Do you mind if I— Thanks.
Look, Mai, there was something I wanted to— Wow. Wow, these are some damn good fries. I love it when they’re really crispy like that, and they just crunch in your mouth, you know? Mmmm. Anyway there’s something we need to talk about. This just isn’t working for me. You’re really special and really talented. I mean, the way you can take a three-minute pop song and arrange it for classical instruments — that’s really something else. Sure, we had some good times together. Remember the way the cello and the woodwinds just swirled around Roni Hod’s pattering drum beat on “Mr. Wrong”? Or what about the fragile melody that comes together from the interplay between the plucked harp strings and that mournful violin at the beginning of “To Me”? You managed to eke out some truly lovely moments here and there. I just think you’d be happier with someone a little…um…more mature. You know, maybe someone with a little more Celine Dion in their collection.
What? The dancier songs? Yeah, see — how do I put this? Those are actually part of the problem. At least your other songs have a kind of quiet elegance about them, but “Die” and the second half of “To Me” sound really dated, almost as though your only frame of reference for ‘dance music’ came from watching MTV in the 90s. Seriously, it’s like someone did an orchestral remix of Evanescence.
Oh, God. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s me, okay? It’s nothing you did; I’m just not ready to settle down with coffee-shop rock interpreted for a 25-piece orchestra. I’m a young guy. There’s still so much that I have to experience, and—
Wait, are you crying? No, no, no, no, come on, it’s okay. I mean, what does it matter now what went wrong? What good would it do to hash this out when— Okay, fine, you want it honestly? It’s the lyrics, Mai. What am I supposed to do with a line like “You’re a better person than me today/ I forgot what I wanted to say/ Oh yeah, I love you”? This is the type of thing you would scrawl on a note to your crush in the 9th grade and slip into his locker before school.
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. It’s just that you’re an Israeli songwriter. You live in one of the most turbulent nations in the world. I can only imagine the things you’ve seen and the way they’ve shaped your life up until now. But the songs on Birthday, these sappy meditations on love and loneliness, they feel like they could have been written by anyone. I’m not saying all your songs need to be about car bombings and political unrest, but I need you to dig deeper and find a lyrical voice that’s as unique and resonant as the one you sing with.
Anyway, I hope we can still be friends after all of this. Birthday is a pretty interesting little project. There are lots of artists incorporating orchestral arrangements into their indie pop, but none of them seems to be doing exactly what you’re after. Maybe somewhere down the line we could get together again and I could check out what you’re working on? There’s a lot of potential here, but now? I don’t know, the timing’s just not right.
Say, uh…would you mind picking this up? I think I left my wallet in my other jeans.
More about: Mai Lev
