Ten years after its release, Tabitha Smith explores I Love You. and its legacy of teen angst in indie pop music.
The rise of soft grunge and the understated emo in the early to mid-2010s absolutely have The
Neighbourhood to blame (or thank, depending on your own experience). In 2013, I was still bopping
to my NOW! CDs, blissfully unaware of this phenomenon, but was fortunate enough that its legacy
remained into my early teens and completely changed my experience of music. For me, I Love You.
and the soft grunge era mark an important shift that occurs for every young person discovering
music on their own terms.

The years between 2012 and 2015 brought endless coming-of-age albums for my age-range,
stemming from indie rock classics like Arctic Monkeys’ AM, Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!
aiming to draw out the glory days of the emo scene for a little longer, and the dynamic mix of
restless, mournful and wicked from Halsey’s BADLANDS, Lana Del Rey’s Ultraviolence and MARINA’s Electra Heart. But The Neighbourhood’s contribution provides the perfect medium of all the elements associated with soft grunge; Jesse Rutherford’s soft vocals, the longing lyrics and the
overall dreamy atmosphere, particularly through this body of work.
The first few songs, in both title and content, are lyrically defined by a sense of paranoia. Toning
down from the drum-machine beats of the later tracks, Afraid and Everybody’s Watching Me (Uh
Oh) establish a smoothness to the songs’ delivery that feel in great contrast to the lyrical content.
Afraid is a personal favourite of mine for the way it embodies this paradox of confidence. As a
whole, it feels like a very personal song, with Rutherford maturely accepting his insecurities towards
his status and his familial and romantic relationships. But at its core, its flippant refrain of ‘you’re too
mean, I don’t like you, f*** you anyway’ makes the track feel like a juvenile deflection of
responsibility; whether this contrast is intentional or merely utilising more simplistic lyricism, it
certainly strikes an angsty tone for the young listener.
"The motionlessness of the colder seasons leads to contemplation and yearning, something which the album captures perfectly."
With all of its melancholy and greyscale, I Love You. feels like a wintry album. The motionlessness of
the colder seasons leads to contemplation and yearning, something which the album captures
perfectly. Rutherford detailed in an interview not long after the release of the album that none of
the songs were about being whole-heartedly in love, and were more questioning and contemplating
experiences with his partners. Songs like W.D.Y.W.F.M? and Flawless really reflect this sense of
upfront questioning of a relationship, often hoping for the worst in the case of Flawless, where
Rutherford claims he ‘just can’t wait for love to destroy us’.
The album leans into some darker themes too, particularly in Female Robbery. Having always
skipped over this track, listening to it and its lyrics properly for the first time, I was a little unsettled.
The track discusses the fantasy of being kidnapped by a woman, a topic that feels uncomfortable
enough, only for the music video to depict the protagonist, and supposed narrator of these lyrics, to
be a young girl. This reminded me of Melanie Martinez’s Tag You’re It in the way that these troubling topics are romanticised, particularly to a young audience, something that is not uncommon within
this genre but definitely a trend that The Neighbourhood’s music has thankfully moved away from.
The cultural significance of this album cannot be discussed without mentioning its star single,
Sweater Weather. Despite featuring on their 2012 EP I’m Sorry…, the band rereleased the track as
their lead single for the album, a marketing decision that undoubtedly paid off. The song enjoyed
great success on the Billboard Alternative chart, being named their third most aired song of the year.
Its success has withstood the test of time too, especially with the song’s resurgence on TikTok in recent years due to its association with the LGBTQ+ community. Due to the song describing two
lovers in non-gender specific ways, listeners are able to interpret the song as queer-coded, often
leading it to be defined as the ‘bisexual anthem’. In some ways, the soft grunge aesthetic as a whole
has links with queer identities. Jokes about angst and feeling misunderstood aside, this was a
phenomenon with its own style and sound and allowed young adults to reflect on their identity in
ways that helped affirm who they were, even if it made some of us very pretentious for a while…
"The Neighbourhood’s debut album remains a staple of that early 2010s, Tumblr-tainted subculture, and undoubtedly the soundtrack to many people’s teenage years."
The band’s 2018 compilation album Hard to Imagine the Neighbourhood Ever Changing ironically
illustrates the exact opposite of its title. The group collaborated with iconic hip hop acts such as
Ghostface Killah and Nipsey Hussle, and have released more electronically inspired songs such as
Heaven that feel like the futuristic R&B of Chase Atlantic, which, with Rutherford’s vocals and lyrical style, feels like a natural progression. Despite dedicating to a more glittery aesthetic these days, The Neighbourhood’s debut album remains a staple of that early 2010s, Tumblr-tainted subculture, and undoubtedly the soundtrack to many people’s teenage years.
Tabitha Smith
Edited by: Izzy Morris
Cover and in-article image courtesy of Amazon. Video courtesy of The Neighbourhood on YouTube.
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