“I Wanna Get Better” by Bleachers

"I Wanna Get Better" was the first single from Bleachers, the band fronted by Jack Antonoff, released through RCA in 2014 from their debut album Strange Desire. Antonoff wrote and produced it with John Hill, with Mark Bengston also sharing production credit, and he called it his mission statement: a song that marches through every bad thing that had happened to him, the grief of 9/11, then losing his sister in 2002 and a cousin killed in the Iraq War in 2003.

The verses are literal and the message heavy, but it plays as power pop built for a stadium singalong, with chopped-up piano notes and samples in the mix and Antonoff's voice climbing from a baritone murmur to a full-throated shout. Rachel Antonoff, Andrew Dost and Mae Whitman fill out the backing vocals. It went all the way to number one on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart, and in the video, directed by Lena Dunham, Antonoff plays a therapist.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.