Revisionist Western

I’ve spent a not insignificant part of my life wonder what makes a song sad. Is it... Wait, hold on. Real quick, before I go wandering down this "sad song" rabbit hole: this record is one of the best things I’ve heard all year.  Okay, back to the sad song question.  The obvious answer is that lyrics set the emotional tone for a song. Writing about something sad makes a song sad. But Sammy Hagar has written songs about breakups and when I hear them I don’t think “hey, this breakup song makes me sad,” I think “oh good, whoever this song is about doesn’t have to be around Sammy Hagar anymore.” Most sad lyrics don’t feel like they’re about a specific person or incident or experience. They feel like generic platitudes that could be written by anyone about anything. Put more bluntly, Sammy Hagar lyrics aren’t sad because even when Sammy Hagar writes about something sad, his lyrics lack any sort of specifics or details that would suggest the vulnerability necessary t