Grocery Store Jamz

INXS - Don’t Change (1982)

An ultimate crime in life’s pacing is that you can’t just close out a relationship. I mean, they end, sure, but they always meander - from just a wee bit (awkward encounter in the grocery store 14 months later: “Someone told me you moved?!”) the drawn fucking out (“Oh, but I haaaaave to meet him for drinks. He still has some of my records and we’re still friends!”). Fuck that, I want a cinematic close. I want to grab my soulful hunk, draw him close for a final kiss (because, really, you mean a lot to me. Which is why I must go!), then jump into the back of an awaiting pick-up truck driven by guest star Tom Petty (but his character’s name is Dingo) where the Eno synths of “Don’t Change” begin to swell and the guitars then burst wide open as the tears and locks of loose hair stream around my face in the wind as we pull away. “Don’t change!” I mouth. It’s a promise of return, unless something better comes along for both of us and in that case we will never ever see each other again, up to and including never being tagged in the same two year old party photo on Facebook. Don’t change, don’t look back. Christ, I love this song.

—meredith