Emery Recommends: “Don’t You Evah” by Spoon

What even is this song about? Who gives a shit*!

I have no idea why I love Spoon’s “Don’t You Evah.” I know every word but I have never bothered to wonder what the song is about. I put it on pretty much every playlist I make — it’s great for summer songs, it’s a good song for work playlists, it has to be on a road trip mix… you get the idea.

I found Spoon years ago thanks to The O.C., that early-00s teen drama with the kickass soundtrack, and was immediately hooked. Then the band released the brilliant Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga in 2007 and I haven’t quit listening to this song since.

(As a side note, for a long, long time I misheard the intro as “Jim, record the cockfight.” I still have no idea what talkback is or why the hell Jim won’t record it.)

Usually when I adore a song, there’s some deeper meaning, a lyric that just gets to me, an emotional thing that happened that will forever be remembered when a set of notes play. But “Don’t You Evah,” and actually pretty much every Spoon song I love, has the good fortune of just existing without a bunch of feelings weighing it down. It’s just a damn good song that goes great with any playlist, in any season. But especially in summer.

*Of course because I was writing this I had to do some internet sleuthing and accidentally learned more about the “meaning” of “Don’t You Evah,” namely that “it’s a song about commitment and the inescapable cold feet that linger close behind the concept of monogamy,” according to Consequence of Sound. It’s also a cover, which I did not know. I wish I did not learn the first bit — I preferred this song to be unattached to meaning, dammit — but I am now off to seek out the original.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSu6ixOlzmc(Song recommendation by Emery Ross)