The trick with most things in life is to be able to say a lot with very little. Sometimes I do it by accident, sometimes on purpose. The best of us can do it repeatedly. Charles Bukowski, Philip Levine, William Gibson, and ee cummings.
Music is one of those areas where you can either be Nick Cave and insert a Faulknerian epic into your punk rock love ballad.
Or you can be the fella’s from the “National”.
This band can say it all through tone, half phrases, and a subtle waft of Leonard Cohen’s cologne.
The song
It’s all in there for me, Laura, and the kids that we’ve had it on auto repeat for the last few weeks.
I hope to see them live soon. Check out the National and their new album at “Pitchfork Media”:http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/43053-boxer
Fake Empire-
Stay out super late tonight
picking apples, making pies
put a little something in our lemonade and take it with us
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
Tiptoe through our shiny city
with our diamond slippers on
do our gay ballet on ice
bluebirds on our shoulders
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
Turn the light out say goodnight
no thinking for a little while
lets not try to figure out everything at once
It’s hard to keep track of you falling through the sky
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
I was with you until you mentioned Pitchfork Media. While magazines such as Rolling Stones and Blender do tend to overglorify mainstream pop music, I think Pitchfork Media goes too far the other way. Their site (and reviews) reek of indie music elitism that drives me nuts even though I LOVE indie music.
Unless you’re a universally acclaimed hip-hop artist (Kanye West, Lauren Hill, etc.), in general if you’re mainstream, Pitchfork hate them.
Thanks for the song though. Good stuff.