Zen & The Art Of Dating

Album: Ensoulment (2024)
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Songfacts®:

  • The comical "Zen & the Art of Dating" is a track written by The The mainman Matt Johnson and recorded for their 2024 album Ensoulment. The song is about online romance.
  • "Zen & the Art of Dating" is structured in a narrative style, presenting vignettes of different characters navigating the modern dating landscape. The song employs a mix of descriptive verses and a repetitive chorus that emphasizes the need for connection ("We need somebody tonight").
  • "Zen & the Art of Dating" reflects Johnson's observational and satirical take on modern dating culture rather than being directly autobiographical. He was in a relationship during the lead up to the release of Ensoulment in 2024.

    "I researched it by looking at various dating sites and got interested in how people talk about themselves... lie about themselves, and the shopping list of what they're looking for in a partner," he told Mojo magazine. "Committed, kind, clean, solvent..." The unreasonable expectations..."
  • The title is a play on Robert M. Pirsig's 1974 philosophical novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

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