Song of the Day: Sweet Disposition

I heard this song, by Australian band The Temper Trap, recently on an episode of Greek (which is tragically now off the air, but I managed to record some episodes on my DVR and have been catching up on them this past week). Sweet Disposition plays during a scene in which one of the frat houses throws an epic End of the World party, during which Casey realizes that she’s still in love with her ex-boyfriend, lovable slacker Cappie. She breaks up with her current boyfriend Max and declares her love for Cappie, but he tells her it won’t work out between them. Luckily we know that he secretly still loves her too, because he sits on a rooftop looking melancholy while this song plays in the background. You will no doubt be reassured to know that Cappie and Casey do eventually end up together. I haven’t seen the rest of the seasons (damn you DVR for not taping anything past this episode!!) but I watch a lot of TV and I know how these things work. In teen-oriented dramas, the star-crossed main couple ALWAYS ends up together. It’s like a law or something (the only exception I can think of being Joey choosing Pacey instead of Dawson, but by then we were all rooting for Pacey anyway, amiright? Joshua Jackson, I LU, call me!)

ANYWAY. Sweet Disposition was used perfectly in this context since it’s exactly the type of song employed to great effect in television/movies (teen or otherwise) to express romantic longing, particularly the moment when a character comes to a realization about their feelings for someone. I am a complete sucker for these moments. If you’re reading this right now and thinking to yourself “God, Spencer is SUCH a girl,” you are absolutely correct. Hearing this song got me thinking about the best date I had in high school. It was with a boy I had a super huge crush on, and we watched Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure together. If that doesn’t sound particularly romantic to you, what can I say — I really love that movie. Not only is it a classic, it is now forever linked in my mind with that wonderful/horrible/excruciating feeling you get when you like someone and you aren’t sure if they like you…..but then YES! it turns out that they totally like you too and it is AWESOME. Sigh…

So that’s why Sweet Disposition is my song of the day — because it reminded me of lying on a couch with my high school crush watching one of the best movies of all time & wondering if he was going to kiss me (he did — YAY!) The ability to transport you back to an exact moment in time like that, now that’s the power of a great pop song.