Young love is a beautiful thing… and also a very awkward thing. Teenage hearts trying to communicate their feelings in poetic form has the purest intent, but the results, in hindsight, are usually super uncomfortable and unintentionally hilarious.
Such is the focus of “The Mortified Muse,†a new segment of The Mortified Podcast that takes love letters written by teenagers and asks a famous artist to turn the writing into a song. For the first iteration of the series, CHVRCHES stepped up and turned in a sappy, pop love song about a girl named Laurel.
The words were written by a 14-year-old Nat Miller, and “Laurel” was the first song he had ever written for a girl. “I was hoping Laurel would hear this song, realize that I am a great guy, and her and I would go out and she would be my girlfriend,” Miller said. “Oh my god, I was obsessed with her.”
Miller admitted that he “didn’t know her” and “barely talked to her,” but regardless, in the class will of his senior yearbook, he left the song for her, which she has never heard. Miller even took liberties with the pronunciation of her name: “I called it ‘Laur-el’ because ‘Laur-el’ is more poetic than ‘Laurel.'”
CHVRCHES actually turn the lyrics into a serviceable song, but boy are they full of young heartache. Here’s a sample lyrics: “Loneliness is a book without words / A guitar song without chords / A romantic night without a moon / A love song without a tune / Laurel, Laurel.”
It’s terrifically juvenile and cheesy, but we can’t help but admire, as the podcast put it, “sensitive lads out there who wear their hearts on their sleeve.”
Tune in below around the 25:15 mark to hear CHVRCHES’ take on the song.
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HT: SPIN
Featured image courtesy of The Windish Agency
