IZZY'S NOSTALGIA: Pierce The Veil
Written by Isabella Young
Nostalgia is a fickle feeling. With hindsight comes a much softer version of most memories. As we grow older, we grow fonder to the things we enjoyed in our youth. The places, the people, the experiences; it all seems so much more simple. Nostalgia covers all perspectives with rose colored glasses. Throughout the past year, I’ve found myself diving into the music I loved while growing up.
The year was 2010. In this year I would attend my first concerts, prepare to enter high school, and develop a crush on any person with a pulse. Selfish Machines released on June 22, 2010 through Equal Vision Records. This album contains a number of Pierce the Veil’s most iconic songs, such as; Caraphernelia, Bulletproof Love, and Besitos.
I constantly had my headphones plugged into my iPod, with many of my heavy rotations coming from this album. Caraphernelia was at the top. Vocalists Vic Fuentes and Jeremy Mckinnon joined forces to create a song about Fuentes’ ex-girlfriend leaving her stuff behind with him. The juxtaposition of Fuentes' high pitched singing paired with Mckinnon’s low growls creates an intense atmosphere. This song is seeping with a sense of longing and grief. “What if I can’t forget you? I’ll burn your name into my throat, I’ll be the fire that’ll catch you,” this line echoes through every chorus. What I loved about it a decade ago is the same reason I love it now, the dramatic relatability of it. Missing somebody so much, you don’t even know if you want to move on without them.
While many of the songs were a hit, there was one song in particular that caught my ear that I never got into when this album first released. I Don’t Care if You’re Contagious may not have aged well as a title, but the contents of this song have held up well against the test of time. The origins of this song stem from a fan who had lost her boyfriend. This song was written from the perspective of her deceased boyfriend, expressing that their love was eternal and he would be watching over her. Featuring soft vocals from Vanessa Harris, this song offers a complex pairing with Fuentes powerful vocals. “I’m gonna tear out the thread one by one from your skin until your bones feel embarrassed by all the attention,” is a line that can be interpreted in many different ways. My initial thought was that he was referencing many of the lines in the song, and throughout the album, of dying together in the name of love.
The album itself has such an intense energy. With constant motifs of a violent and dramatic love, I could see why I was obsessed with it over a decade ago. These ideas of being so intertwined with somebody that you are unwilling to live without them is such a dangerously beautiful concept. Listening to it now, I’m able to take it with a grain of salt. These ideas of romance seem scarier to me now, rather than the excitement I felt in my adolescence. Even after a decade, this album still hits.