S.O.S. Texted From A Cell Phone

Against Me! “Don’t Lose Touch” (Live)

The most clever thing about “Don’t Lose Touch” is that Laura Jane Grace embedded a self-critique about getting too caught up in a rock star trip in a song that is built to get the audience moving and singing along and worshipping your every move. It’s the sort of punk anthem that pulls you in whether you want to or not; the song is just nonstop rising momentum with a dance beat. And she calls that out too – “manipulation in rock music, fucking nausea!” It’d be easy to read this song as a self-loathing thing, and maybe there’s a trace of that in the original studio recording, but this live version from last year feels like a celebration. Now it sounds more like a pledge than self-admonishment, even when she’s belting out “I’m loooooooosing touuuuuuuch!” It’s also like a contract with herself and the audience – if you think I’m losing touch, call me out. But I don’t think that’s going to happen.

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