Matthew Davis’s novel Let Me Try Again is debut both incredibly funny and delightfully absurd.
Our Culture wrote of the book:
“A ridiculously funny and absurd tale of heartbreak in the modern age, Let Me Try Again is as witty and sharp as debuts come.””
In his own words, here is Matthew Davis’s Book Notes music playlist for his debut novel Let Me Try Again:
My book is about a guy who breaks up with his ex-girlfriend, then his parents die. Out of trauma, naive romantic impulses, or maybe being creepy, he devotes his large inheritance to trying to scheme his way back into her good graces. Because writing a book is such a lonely endeavor, I spent a lot of time listening to music, and so certain music was a big part of the inspiration for the book. I attempted to break down these songs into a few different categories.
The Beatles
I’m going to spam Rubber Soul by The Beatles for a second, because I listened to it multiple times a day for the 3 month period while I wrote the first draft of this book. Rubber Soul is the last Beatles album that’s primarily about these relationships between men and women, these situations where naive and pure hearted men find themselves getting twisted up into knots.
There are other Beatles songs alluded to in the book, but I’ll just do the ones from Rubber Soul here. This album kinda inspired my book the way Paul Thomas Anderson claims the music of Aimee Mann inspired Magnolia.
I’m Looking Through You
Basically every song on Rubber Soul is referenced in this book, this is a great one. Ross alludes to it during his parents’ funeral and sort of inverts the lyrics. I won’t quote it here. But I get chills often thinking about the line “love has a nasty habit of disappearing overnight,” it’s just so great. You can listen to it when you’re happy, and listen when you’re sad, and take something away from it every time.
Girl
Another great Rubber Soul song. There are girls sometimes who are kinda bad and naughty and elusive but they’re incredible, they’ll have great power over you. When you say they’re looking good, they act as if it’s understood.
In My Life
Something about “and you know I’ll never lose affection, for people and things that went before.” I say this line all the time. There’s a recurring theme of family and loving your family and caring about people in my book. I wanted the ending of my book to feel warm like this song, I’m not sure if I succeeded, it’s a touch more ironic.
You Won’t See Me
Great Beatles song about being frustrated that a woman won’t see you. Ross feels like this all the time when trying to get back in touch with his ex-girlfriend Lora Liamant, but he struggles to get ahold of her, poor guy.
Run For Your Life
John Lennon famously disavowed this song as being sexist or whatever, because it’s about a “wicked guy who was born with a jealous mind.”
John in the song, says he’d rather see her dead than to be with another man. I don’t know if my narrator, Ross, ever goes this far—he’s a sweetheart and wouldn’t want to see anyone harmed. But he was definitely born with a jealous mind, or acquired it via some Freudian childhood trauma. This is a great country influenced song about a guy being driven crazy by a girl who doesn’t like him anymore. Very similar to the plot of my book.
‘90s alternative rock songs
There are a ton of 90s alternative rock songs referenced directly in the book. I used to listen to these in the car with my dad, and for some reason, I couldn’t help myself but insert them into the book. A bunch of these are actually named in the book, whereas The Beatles are only hinted at indirectly.
Two Princes – Spin Doctors
This one is mentioned in the book. It’s about a girl who has to choose between two guys, one a nice humble guy, the other a rich guy who wants to buy her rockets. Ross realizes, that after inheriting a lot of money from his rich parents, he might be the bad guy from this song, much to his dismay, especially as someone used to thinking of himself as the shy nice guy.
My Own Worst Enemy – Lit
Dope song that was always playing on WRRV in Poughkeepsie when I was a kid. Ross says it’s a personal favorite of his. The guy keeps getting into trouble because he’s always getting drunk and passing out and stuff. I don’t do that, and neither does the guy in my book, but I love how this song sounds and I relate to the theme of messing your life up by doing dumb stuff that you feel ashamed about.
Fly – Sugar Ray
Pretty cool song. I don’t think I listened to it much while working on the book, but I reference it by name. They’re playing it in the helicopter when Ross’s parents die. At least according to a blackbox recording Ross thinks he heard.
Flagpole Sitta – Harvey Danger
This was playing constantly in the car when I was a kid. To this day it’s one of my favorite of these 90s alternative rock songs, kinda an ironic parody of a post-grunge song. The lyrics are referenced in the book when Ross talks about the rottenness and evil inside him at one point towards the end.
Weezer – The Good Life
I think the incel vibes (rejection, loneliness, insecurity) of Pinkerton inspired my book almost as much as Rubber Soul. I’ll pick this song because it’s maybe the catchiest and about a guy who’s afraid to go out and have fun. Tired of Sex would be another good pick from this album, given the sex negative themes of my book.
Some other songs I thought about and listened to while working on this book:
Bad News – Kanye West
I wanted to call my book this, because the events of my book are pretty similar to those that inspired Kanye’s emo masterpiece 808s and Heartbreak, which is also about a guy who has a dead parent and breaks up with his girlfriend. Bad News is about finding out an ex has moved on, and Kanye’s face turning to STONE when he hears the news. I don’t think I referenced this in the book, I had some weird anxiety about talking about Kanye. My real favorite artists are Kanye, The Beatles, Kafka, and David Foster Wallace, and I refused to mention them in the book for some reason. Maybe they seemed too sacred.
Campus – Vampire Weekend
Amazing song that means a lot to Jewish zoomers. About being young, confused and conflicted about sex. “How am I supposed to pretend, I never want to see you again(?)”
Very deep line. Brilliant. Couple different interpretations. Loved it as a high schooler and it still hits.
Birds Don’t Sing – TV Girl
I was in this girl’s dorm room in September 2015 and her blue-haired roommate was playing this and I liked it so much I had to hit it with the secret Shazam. Now this band is very popular on TikTok, they got some other good songs. A lot of songs about weird or deteriorating relationships between men and women, kinda similar to my book. I thought of them when writing the first draft of this book. Summery LA type songs.
Matthew Davis is a software engineer whose work has been published in The Verge, Hobart, Forever Magazine, and Heavy Traffic, among other publications. He lives in New York City.