By Blanca Estrada, Executive News Editor
As I skipped song after song in the “Made For You” playlist in Spotify, “8TEEN” by Khalid started playing through my headphones. I usually don’t like discovering or listening to new songs, but I decided to give it a try. After all, I have been listening to the same two songs all night.
By the end of the night, “8TEEN” was been played an abundance of times that I ended up memorizing the lyrics. I ended up clicking on his album “American Teen” and falling asleep to his voice.
The reason why I liked his album and ended up putting the album on repeat for two weeks is because I could relate to his songs. In a sense, it felt like he wrote the album for me.
Like many teenagers, I don’t like to share my thoughts and emotions with people. It’s difficult for me to do so because it feels like no one will understand me, or they might think I’m ludicrous. For example, if I’m talking about how my crush ignored me in the hallway, they might say “Get over it. There are other fish in the sea,” or if I’m overthinking a simple wave, they might tell me to change the subject. So when I heard Khalid singing what I was feeling, it felt like I wasn’t alone.
In his song, “Shot Down,” he describes his feelings about teenage love and how we fall in and out of love. Khalid sang, “But you got me shot down by love. You got my heart now. Why won’t you stop now?” For me, it’s scary to fall in love because two things end up occurring in the end. You either end up hurt or happy. However, you never know the ending when getting into a relationship.
Another song I could relate to is “Angels,” which is about people that are always there for you. In the song, Khalid sang, “They’ll hold on their secrets and tone our memories… the angels give me strength and I’m not giving up.” This song touched my heart when I first heard it because the words spoken are true. The friends that we have right now are those whom we can deepen on. Although some don’t always hold our secrets, they are always there in the difficult moments that life gives us.
I understand that this album was released a year ago, but I’ve never heard an artist sang what I was feeling.
It’s difficult in today’s society for someone to understand how you’re feeling. It is even difficult to talk about what you are feeling with someone. I know for a fact that I can’t talk to my parents because the environment in which I’m growing up wasn’t the same for them. Further, I know that I can’t talk to my friends about certain topics because they don’t understand how I’m feeling.
For example, when I want to talk to them about my crush, they are not going to comprehend my emotions. However, Khalid does. When I texted a boy, I was hoping that he will text/call me back. However, he never did and to this day, I’m still patiently waiting. In the song, “Saved” Khalid sings about having a phone number saved in the contact list. In the song, Khalid sings, “But I’ll keep your number saved ‘cause I hope one day you’ll get the sense to call me. I’m hoping you’ll say you’re missing me the way I’m missing you.” Yes, the situation that Khalid is describing is unarguably similar to mine.
Overall, Khalid’s album is more than just an album. It’s my life (not literally but metaphorically). The songs describe my feelings more perfectly than I can describe them myself. It’s crazy how in certain occasions artist can capture your feelings perfectly.
Although many readers may argue that lyrics are just lyrics, they are more than that to me. They are a sense of comfort that I’m going through certain emotions alone and that I’m not the only one feeling them. When I turned 18 on Oct. 29, Khalid sang something that describes me perfectly in the song “8TEEN” and that is “Because I’m 18 and I still live with my parents.”