Friday, September 20, 2013

It's a good year for feeling...

It is rare that in one year I get an opportunity to hear one song that alters the way I want to listen to music. This year has been special because I got two. 

The first was a full album from Queens of the Stone Age. This band has only had one sole member in the last 10 years and the rotating door of artists coming and going has never altered the bands ability to make music. I think the reason why is their intrepid leader Josh Homme and his ability to just think great music into existence. I'm sure it is more complicated than that but this album was so organic and so much a part of my listening behavior that I felt like he had pulled thoughts from my brain. The all-star on the album was the title track "The Vampyre of Time and Memory". Josh starts with a piano, a somber sad voice and a want to have God come take him home. The pure feeling and emotion dripping off the track just pours over me like a warm blanket on a rainy day. It's fantastic and relaxing and depressing in the best kind of way. 

The second is a single song just released by a band I have fallen away from. Pearl Jam has been a trial for me over the last 5 years as I've aged and I felt like the music didn't age with me. I found myself pulling away from a band I've followed pretty aggressively since I was 16 years old. It was a sad split but one that I had thought I had made my peace with. Until tonight. "Sirens" is the name of the song and I can't actually describe it. The song is like seeing an old friend that I thought had moved away. The lyrics are so rich and poignant in the conversation I've had with myself about the fragility of life and how grateful I am to have someone to share my life with. It pushes on the bruise of anxiety in my head about how this can all change at a moment's notice and that I need to hold on to these small moments where life is good. I am grateful that we are safe and together. I am blessed to have people who wants to fight up the side of the hill with me and hold me up when I can't stand anymore on my own. 

"I studied your face, the fear goes away, the fear goes away, the fear goes away."

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