a long december
"maybe this year will be better than the last"

Piano keys, unfamiliar tunes; the audience stands there questioning.. and then bursts into cheers as the well-known bang-bang-a-bang-a-bang-bang of "December" opens.

Not much has changed with this song, either in style or lyrics. This was the biggest hit off of Recovering the Satellites for the band; it's a beautiful song. Having heard it a thousand times, one can find oneself oversaturated by a song, but a little insight can change that. For instance, Adam said in an interview that the song was written during, of course, a December in which a close friend spent time in the hospital in serious condition. While visiting the friend, another friend of the patient came in -- a she -- and while spending time with the comatose patient, Adam and this girl began to talk. Nothing serious, but Adam said in the article that somewhere in that hospital room he fell in love.

Add that to the overall loss and redemption of the song, and you'll see past the chart topping radio single and into the heart of another of Adam's masterpieces.