The Jonas Brothers’ new track “Listen When Sad” is a nostalgic joy to listen to.
It’s always fun to hear a good pop-rock song, especially by an act that brings as much Millennial/Gen Z nostalgia as the Jonas Brothers. “Listen When Sad” is about remembering a teenage relationship that felt like it would last forever, where the girlfriend burned a CD that read “listen when sad, and then call me.”
There’s something self-referential about the focus on teenage nostalgia in this song. Most of the Jonas Brothers’ core fanbase is made up of Millennials and older Gen Z who were teens and pre-teens during their Disney Channel era, and when Camp Rock premiered in 2008, the brothers ranged in age from fifteen to twenty. Joe Jonas’s character in Camp Rock is likely around sixteen. “Listen When Sad” is about a sixteen-year-old’s love story that ended so soon after they’d promised “forever” to each other.
The lyrics, while emotional, are a bit cliché, but this song isn’t trying to be non-cliché. It doesn’t feel like nostalgia bait, either, just nostalgia in a frankly very stressful time. The song sounds like it could be in the credits of a Disney Channel original movie that I would have watched every single time it showed up on television in 2009. It harkens back to a simpler time, and does so splendidly. I couldn’t help but smile as I listened.
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