Everything I Long For - Bad As They Seem

Bad As They Seem

The song "Bad as They Seem" was released as a single, and the music video received some play on MuchMusic and MTV's 120 Minutes. The lyrics are from the point of view of a young twenty-something man in a hopeless situation: working a dead-end job ("where at fourteen"), still living at his parents' home ("until at least forty-three"), infatuated with a 16-year-old "girl of dreams", and possibly infatuated with the girl's mother, as well. The man wishes for a life where he can go out and meet someone to be his "better half". The hopeless and depressing nature of the song is reiterated with each verse, which states that "things are as bad as they seem". The third verse of the song ("Job of my dreams…") is absent from the album's reissues.

In the music video, the 16-year-old girl is wearing a t-shirt for Smoother, a rock band contemporary to Hayden at the time of this release, who were also on the Sonic Unyon label.

At the time of writing the song, Hayden was in his early twenties. While touring to promote his 2008 album In Field & Town, at the age of 36, Hayden modified the lyrics, changing "Girl of my dreams She is only sixteen" to "Girl of my dreams She is only twenty-three".