Music Review: Bridgit Mendler "Hurricane"

Bridgit Mendler

Hurricane

Album: My Name Is…

Year: 2013

             Bridgit Mendler praises her odious boyfriend in the foolish   “Hurricane.”

            A petty guitar opens the single, setting a dense tone. The words keep repeating inside her head: “you don’t know how to drive! No wonder you’re late! They had every right to fire you!” She wipes her runny nose with a tissue and goes to the bathroom to wash her face. She looks into the mirror, her eyes red and puffy, and stares for a minute or so, her face expressionless. She reminds herself they are only words and he didn’t mean them. He will call later to apologize like he always does. Everything will be like it was before. At first, she thought he just was being nice. However, he kept pursuing her. One day he surprised with a five daisies and then asked her to dinner. It was such a thoughtful thing to do and really, she had been too hard on him. After dating him for a few months, he started his habit of having taking his days out on her. If she was even a minute late to pick him up from practice, he would ream her out. She learned to arrive at the gym ten minutes before practice was over. However, sometimes it wasn’t guaranteed to stop a blowup. When he raises his hands towards her, she braces herself, thinking of her parents and little brother, joking and munching on pretzels while tailgating on game day and waits for it to be over. (“Think the clouds are clogging up my brain/Like the way weather drain same as the tears on my face/And I’m stuck up in this storm/I guess I'll be alright/Then it hits me like, oh oh oh/And you're that wind that swept me off my feet/Got me flyin' till I’m cryin' and I'm down on my knees/That's what Dorothy was afraid of/The sneaky tornado, oh oh oh/There's no place like/Home, home.”)

               In the chorus, she turns off her phone. Eventually, they will break up for good and it’s the last time. But when he comes over to apologize, usually with five daisies, grinning, she gives him a hug and lets him open the door for her to go into his car. It’s only temporary, though. His short fuse will go off eventually.  (“I'm boarding up the windows/Lockin' up my heart/It's like everytime the wind blows/I feel it tearin' us apart/Everytime he smiles, I let him in again/Everything is fine when/You're standin' in the eye of the hurricane/Here comes the sun, here comes the rain/Standin' in the eye of the hurricane/Here comes the sun, here comes the rain/Standin' in the eye of the hurricane.”)

         She flips over on her stomach in her bed, clutching her pillow. Thirty seconds later, she turns on her side, looking at her favorite stuffed animals she still has in her room. Her stomach churns and she races to the bathroom to throw up. She doesn’t know how to get out of the situation. An electric dance beat echoes in the bathroom as she checks her phone. It’s her boyfriend. She answers. His apology begins. She tells him she’s not feeling well. Ten minutes later, he’s at her house, getting her a cup of water from the sink. He takes her in his arms and says he’s the only person who knows who she’s really is. They will be together forever. His mom just made him so angry. She nods into his chest as he recites his well-planned speech. His toneless voice is a hint of another explosion. It’s a matter of when. (“I'm floppin' on my bed like a flyin' squirrel/Like a little girl hurt by the big bad world/It's twistin' up my insides, knotted on the outside/Then it hits me like, oh oh oh/And that’s when you hold me, you hold me/You tell me that ya know me/I'll never be lonely/Say we made it through the storm now/But I’m still on the look out, oh oh oh/The air’s gettin' cold, cold.”)

       The chorus is sung again.

     In the bridge, he can make her feel special. She would pass by her locker, avoiding the happy couple whispering and giggling next to her. She thought she wouldn’t ever be one of those girls, moving into her boyfriend’s locker and holding hands in the parking lot as they leave school, concentrating on themselves while their big group of friends swarm around them. At any moment, she could go back to being the anonymous nobody no one ever thinks about. He’s the one who noticed her and made her felt like she  belonged. (“He picks me up/Like he's got the way of the hurricane/And I think I’m fine/Like I'm in the eye of the hurricane/He picks me up/Like he's got the way of the hurricane/And I think I'm fine/Like I'm in the eye of the hurricane/But I’m floatin' floatin'/And I don’t know when, know when/I'm gonna drop/He's got the way/He's got the way.”)

      The chorus is sung again.

      The bridge is sung again to end the single.

        Mendler’s snide, cloying vocals are derisive, romanticizing his cruel treatment of her as little love squabbles. She’s just being making a big deal out of nothing.  His belligerence is a single aspect of his personality. He’s actually really nice and popular, it’s all that matters.

        The irresponsible “Hurricane” feeds into the misconception the violence is only in the woman’s head and even worse, makes the behavior normal and okay.