An Important Thought About Vertical Horizon's "Everything You Want"

Many of you might know Vertical Horizon's hit song, "Everything You Want", from your middle school days. Heck, maybe even your elementary school days. It is probably stiffly interwoven into the very threads of your childhood, to the point that you have obliterated all meaning and understanding of the song as a unit of expression unto itself. Do YOU know what the song is about, really?

Have no fear. Recently I was listening (and singing along to this song) in a gas station when it dawned on me. Vertical Horizon's "Everything You Want" is the aural expression of 90's self-obsession. It's the reason all of us Millennials are so messed up! It's the very basis of "how we do things now"!

"Everything You Want" was also the basis of all passive aggression in our generation. Think about it.

He's everything you want He's everything you need He's everything inside of you That you wish you could be He says all the right things At exactly the right time But he means nothing to you And you don't know why

And, as if that wasn't enough:

I am everything you want
I am everything you need
I am everything inside of you
That you wish you could be
I say all the right things
At exactly the right time
But I mean nothing to you
And I don't know why
And I don't know why

As front-man Sean Hurley croons "Why? I don't know..." and the song ends, we sit and wonder the same exact thing: why won't this chick understand that he is the man of her dreams? He is right there! It is so obvious!

The song definitely gets deep. Thinking on it, maybe he's speaking rhetorically and it's the world who does not love him. Maybe she's blind? Gay?

Or maybe it's the fact that this guy is a class-A chump who can't get the picture. She might have actually gotten with him if he was a little less needy, or didn't try so hard to say exactly the right thing at exactly the right time (we all know someone like this, amiright?). The guy seems to be willingly ignoring the fact that this woman does. not. want.

The fact that this guy says things in such a veiled and distant manner probably underlines a central reason why she isn't dating him.

Pour example:

"Hey what do you want for dinner?"
"He told you earlier he probably just won't eat. He had a big lunch at that deli downtown. He said it very plainly and wishes you'd remember."
"Why did you eat so late? I told you we were going to eat with the Marcuses."
"Why? I don't know..."
"If you write a song about this I will leave you."

Thinking about these things people.