...Just the Shorline Receding...
Lost Coastlines, covers every facet of the grand, epic, indie opus without all the pretention of an Arcade Fire or insert Indie Folk Artist Here. Though I don’t know much of this band’s music outside this song I have heard from that annoying NPR guy that they are “very literary” which in my reasonably genius mind equals pompous but I always seem to ignore this tag and instead put my ears and heart to the test.
First off, there is nothing about this song that I don’t like. I love the lyrics for the story within and the ways they are offered from the two, traveling perspectives. I relate most to the initial narrator’s sadness and fright as his ship sets sail and he sings sadly, “looking deep inside but I don’t want to look so deep inside.” How could I disagree? I feel many times in my short life but seemingly long journey that though in the end I know I’ll probably be fine and better for it all I can truly see is the difficult trials and tribulations to come. I should be remembering that it isn’t the beginning or the end instead it’s the process…the journey that gives me perspective.
My ears always fall for the catchy, ever momentum-gaining music that both references and pays homage to artists all the way from the Supremes to Iggy Pop and the Jam. How could the la la la la la la’s not make me not sing along and feel the joy and the heartache of “travel”? How can I not relate to the mystery of a new day, a new land, a new job, or a new struggle ? How could my musical soul ignore the Mariachi horns that dig deep into my heart causing me to hum and tap the car’s steering wheel?
This song is not just a song it is a moment of life caught in words and music. It sings you cannot stay safely on the shores of the continents and the cities you already know instead it says seek growth, adventure, and the unknown and never to stagnate. So, I say it is time for us all to sit, sing along, and think about what it is to be alive.
2323/2323
-Rubles
Tags: greatest, okkervil river
2009/10/04 at 9:51 am |
[...] this cover by the dude from New Pornographers (AC Newman) and Will Sheff was nearly as great as the original but any version that’s not performed by amateurs in their sorry bedrooms is worth a listen [...]