Crucial Track for January 31, 2026

"Well-Dressed" by Hop Along

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#365songs (31 / 365)

Frances Quinlan's voice is the linchpin of Hop Along, and the first minute or so of "Well-Dressed" is a good showcase of why. The pleading "I wanted to leave" into the roar of "I don't remember, I DON'T REMEMBER ever shaking hands with you-know-who" is a tour de force and the way Quinlan really lays into her vocal cords on that second "I don't remember" is one of those frisson moments for me.

The lyrics of "Well-Dressed" are elliptical and their meaning is elusive, but to me the song points to the way modernity tramples on and abuses people: "the law has buried me," "a freeway all around my bed," "afflicted houses and buildings," the narrator's mother begging them "not to give [their] social security number to anybody else." The band's one sentence about the song in a track-by-track on Painted Shut:

> I've said it once and I'll say it again: our society wasn't built with most people in mind.

With that in mind, I think "Well-Dressed" is a terribly sad song. The well-dressed "some of us" — the ones who know how, that is — are not the "most people." The "most people" are the ones with the freeways built all around their beds, the ones buried by the laws. The well-dressed are the ones who gladly shook hands with you-know-who; it's their world and the rest of us are just struggling to live in it.

Note: You can't sample this song on Bandcamp, but you can buy it here.