Song #68: Soul Asylum - "Can't Even Tell"

Song #68: Soul Asylum - "Can't Even Tell" (1994)

Clerks: Music from the Motion Picture

"I know, you know, I wanna know how I feel, I can't even tell..."

By now, if you've been a devoted follower/fan of mine or a close friend, you know I love the film Clerks unconditionally for reasons I've explained several times. From the completely natural conversations in the film, to the situational relatability, and the hilarious characters that make up the film, I find the film to be an uncommon work of comedy gold that still has gone unseen by far too many people.

When discussing Clerks, one can't forget about the soundtrack of the film, composed largely of heavy-metal, rock, grunge, and nineties alternative, doing justice to the kinds of people it attempts to resonate with. My personal favorite song on the entire album is heard at the very end of the film, during the hilarious and unconventional end credits, and that is "Can't Even Tell" by Soul Asylum. The song is a perfect blend of infectious instrumentation put to meaningful lyrics about being lost in translation and the inability to articulate your current mood.

The song has come in handy throughout my last year of high school, specifically the day after my high school prom, which was probably the most listless, emotionally drained, and lackadaisical day of my entire life. I had simply experienced an overload of emotion and activity, and the day after was a bout with a great deal of feelings I simply couldn't articulate. In order to try and somewhat understand these complex feelings, I through on this gem and began to have tears in my eyes because of how relatable it was to my situation.

But "Can't Even Tell" has been with me more than just two months ago on the day after prom. This is a song that I kept on every cell-phone that I had in my entire life, and even my iPod, which I used as my primary source of music from 2006 to 2009. This song has been with me a lot, helping me not understand but cope with uncertain emotion, and I guarantee it'll have some significance when/if I graduate college in 2018.

Give "Can't Even Tell" a listen (this is the music video version of the song, which was made during the time Clerks was being made as well, meaning the video features many of the same characters from the film), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esE-XvZicxE