| The Shins – Girl On The Wing Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think that this song, as well as a few other Shins songs (namely The Celibate Life) are about infidelity. Particularly from the point of view of Mercer having a relationship with a 'committed' woman. "we could have been so good-natured if i'd relented when you insisted," paint a picture of two former friends who can barely controllable desire - two people who CAN'T be together, but who also CAN'T resist their sin. "i'm through with riddles, i know we're little, just help me feel warm inside," illustrated the guilt felt by living with lies, or "riddles". he speaks of having to "surrender" to this guilt, this sin, before he takes "this ride..." There is latent, background regret that runs throught this song - perhaps hinting that this affair is over,, or just that the real relationship that he had with this girl before their affair is totally ruined. Flying too close to the sun, losing everything by wanting it all. I find the 2-song stretch of The Celibate Life and Girl on the Wing to be some of the best, most captivating, and most emotionally deep work the Shins have put together. These two songs stop my in my tracks every time I hear them - but perhaps I am just applying personal experience with another's artistic expression. |
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| Neil Young – Let's Impeach The President Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| It's almost like Neil Young's body of work is so vast, so wide, so accessible, and so often-updated that he can effortlessly reach back to whatever musical and thematic styles he needs to supplement his current emotional creativity. So finds Young, in 2006, recording and releasing a studio-written original album in the span of 4 weeks. He understands not only this amazingly shocking-yet-forseen place America finds itself in but also the way a popular artist might go about speaking to, and with, his audience about the realizition of finding oneself in such a place. To some, Neil Young might not have sprinted with the Beatles, the Stones or Dylan but he's surely runs the distances with no peer. Let's Impeach The President, and Living With War as a whole, might be Neil's last push towards the big blue line at Copley.....but perhaps he is just catching another wind along Heartbreak Hill. Only more distance will tell. | |
| Neil Young – Barstool Blues Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| on an album where it seemed Young was at least temporarily exorcised of his mid-70's demons, Barstool Blues provides a lyrical look over the shoulder for the still unsaddled songwriter. The musical delivery is, well, classic Crazy Horse. Immediate yet transcendent - Basic yet layered - Celebrated and underrated. A solid 3 chord masterpiece, Barstool Blues uses the unquantifiable spiritual combination of scarred past and brilliant present. | |
| Two Gallants – Waves of Grain Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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It's just too simplistic to label Two Gallant's "Waves of Grain" an Anti-Bush song. It does the emotional, lyrical and musical depth of the song a disservice by simply passing the blame off upon one man, albeit the President. The song is an indictment upon Middle America. I don't necessarily mean Middle Class America. Or Americans in the Middle of the country. I am referring to those Americans who found the Conservative (restricted) Religious (preferably Christian, or at least one whose members dress in ties) Right (NOT left! Not Massachusetts! Not California! US NOT THEM!!!!) an idea so neutral, so self-comforting, so acceptable, that they honestly thought, and still think, that the idea was still unconditionally applicable. Only when the roots of the ideas were implanted into these non-urban, non-immigrant, non-poor, non-Different voters was it even possible to elect a George Bush. Bush happened because of why America is a broken machine who repeatedly finds a way to keep it's very ideals and aspirations alive, despite repeated failed efforts. And without occasionally finding blood on one's hands. "Waves of Grain", despite the chorus' claim, is more about the roots and less about the harvest. |
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