#55 "Don't Mean Nothin'" by Pete Yorn

Pete Yorn is the first musician I ever listened to simply because he looked cool. I'll discuss that more later when I talk about a selection from his first album, but sometimes you really can judge a book by its cover.

Yorn's career has kind of been all-over-the-place. His excellent debut, "Musicforthemorningafter," helped Yorn to be tabbed "the best thing out of New Jersey since Bruce Springsteen." It's a great album and I played the hell out of it when I first got it. His second album, however, was a bit of a let-down. The vocal versatillity Yorn showed on his first record was replaced by a bunch of songs that all kind of sounded the same. But then on his third release, "Nightcrawler," his work was almost too diverse and it just didn't leave me with a consistent flow despite having some really great individual songs. My interest in Pete was waning a little bit, but then came the fabulous "Westerns" EP in 2006.

"Westerns" is a collection of mostly acoustic tunes from Yorn. They're rootsy and organic and the only complaint I could make about "Westerns" is that I wish it was longer. It is without a doubt some of Yorn's best work, even in such a small space. Two of the songs have some great backing vocals by The Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines. One of them is the song I've included here.

"Don't Mean Nothin'" sounds like a lover's lament. The lyrics discuss a relationship that seems to have gone sour. Being married, honestly, I can relate. No, my marriage hasn't gone south, but it's always a challenge to keep it fresh... so that it means "somethin'" to my wife and I. I like the lines "Sometimes you feel it. Other times you're bored. You understood me once, but now you're lost." I'd gather that a lot of long-term commited partners can identify with this notion. The chorus always really moves me too. Something about the line "Try and you'll remember what you used to be" really gets to me. It's that idea of remembering who you were when you got together... remember WHY you got together and what it was that you wanted back then. What happened to that person? What have we become and is it the people we wanted to be? Yorn's tune ends on a sad note when he tells his lover "If you don't recognize it, then you never will" and then finishes the song with "Oh Baby don't you see I'm never coming home... and it don't mean nothin'." It's certainly more bitter than I want the story of my own marriage to go, but I appreciate the honest perspective that Pete Yorn brings to the complexities of relationships.

"Don't Mean Nothin'" is from the EP "Westerns." To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.