Love = kick in the head

I made a sawi/torpe sampler! With commentary! And uh -- hang on, I wonder if I should upload the files?

*tinker*

This may not make sense to non-Filipino speakers, as most of these are Filipino songs (they were posted for the auit LJ community).

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Fact: people in love secretly relish thrashing around in the throes of despair. And Filipinos — being hopeless romantics — adore all that anguish, especially if it’s inspired by unrequited love. Thus the many many songs about the torpe, aka The Guy In Love With The Girl He Cannot Have (due to her being taken, or his own stupidity/ineptitude/unworthiness, or maybe both!) And Therefore Unable To Express His Feelings.

And hey, you can’t have a torpe who is not sawi; that is, terribly unlucky in love, or in the very depths of love-despair. Just doesn’t happen. They go together like… bibingka and grated coconut. GRATED WITH MUCH PAIN.

Contemporary music, mostly, compiled with no specific genre in mind except that of Songs College Students Sing When They Are Drunk And Angst About Their Stupid Love Lives. There are a lot of songs I wanted to include here that I couldn’t find, so there will probably a part 2 for this.

Disclaimer: I make fun of them because I love them. Also because I used to be one of them, and can’t help laughing at my past self.

Brownman Revival - 'Di Mo Lang Alam : : The eternal dilemma of the torpe: how to confess his love, when the girl in question has no idea he would die a very very messy death just for her sake.

Up Dharma Down - Pag-agos : : Kasawian, the state of being sawi, has a lot to do with suffering alone. The singer’s problem is not one of confession, but that she left her love. (Another common theme. Why do these people purposely cause themselves pain? you ask. I have no idea.)

Moonstar88 - Torete : : A female torpe, gasp. Aside from her gender she is the epitome of katorpehan. Refrain, roughly translated, goes: Don’t worry, I won’t force [my feelings] on you. Even though I feel like I could fly — I’m not in my right mind because of you.

Parokya ni Edgar - Halaga : : A favorite of those guys desperately in love with a female friend who happens to be a battered girlfriend. The singer bemoans the irony of the boyfriend’s not realizing the girl’s true worth: medyo malabo yata ang mundo — binabasura ng iba ang siyang pinapangarap ko. (The world’s kinda messed up — another guy treats like trash what I can only dream about. Thus the title; halaga is worth/value.)

Kamikazee - Director's Cut : : A guy (not a torpe, but maybe just as unlucky) inexplicably abandoned by the girl he loved. Much angst ensues. Nanginginig, nalulungkot, nahihibang at tulala (shaking, saddened, going crazy [!], staring into space).

Rocksteddy - Imposible : : The most endearing quality about the torpe is how he manages to combine hope and hopelessness; he’d be an optimist, except he’s in denial. I like how matter-of-fact this song is, and yet it manages to be wistful.

Mayonnaise - Bakit Part 2 : : Favorite question of the torpe and the sawi. This line says it all: Ngunit bakit pinilit kung ayaw ko’ng masaktan? (Why did I force it/keep on if I didn’t want to get hurt?) Nobody knows.

Hungry Young Poets - Torpe : : As silly, illogical, or unreasonable as the torpe may seem to those of us with less dramatic love lives, we all love him. And though he may occasionally drive the girl he loves crazy, in the end, “ayoko ng torpe — pero gusto kita.” (I don’t want a torpe — but I want you.)

Bonus! Itchyworms - Beer : : Because it makes everything better. (Also because it’s only during those late-night drinking sessions that you get to see the closet torpe/sawi angsting in all his glory.)

Bonus2! (vox-only) Parokya ni Edgar - Sayang : : Damn! Why didn't I court you?