The Skinny on Love Gone Bad

When I first saw the song title Skinny Love on my Sirius radio display, I thought it was going to be a "no fat chicks" anthem. My first thought at the time was that the artist had some guts putting out a song like this regardless of how strongly he felt about the subject. Then I thought why don't I quit assuming what this song is about, based on my preconceived notions, and just listen to it. Well, I did and I was wrong by a ton.

This song captures the essence of the emotional fallout one suffers from a relationship gone bad and its ultimate end. However, it also takes it a step further and expresses how the experience not only affects that relationship, but more importantly, how you never really put the bad experience behind you. Instead, you carry that broken and battered emotional baggage to all of your future relationships and it affects those as well.

The subtle use of guitar and percussion in this song, stripped down to their bare essentials, take a back seat to the residual raw emotion and pain that seem to still be coursing through Bon Iver's (Justin Vernon's) veins over this failed relationship - You feel this as his voice alternates between a soulful moan to barely contained tormented shouts of rage and you can almost envision him crawling off into a corner and wrenching this song from his broken heart and tortured soul at the moment he realized the relationship was over and could not be salvaged.

Imagine how different things would be if everyone was able to channel their internal pain, hostility, and rage into a creative outlet like music and song as it is done here with such truth and emotion. There would probably be less domestic and workplace violence in the world and many more great songs like Skinny Love, which can't be a bad thing; even if your internal pain, hostility, and rage, are fueled by your feelings against fat chicks.

*This song is for educational and reference purposes only and performed and written by the credited artist.