Wednesday's Emotional Setup: On To You
Oh Lord, forgive me, for I have sinned.
I have committed the cardinal sin of music reviewing: I have reviewed an album before it's time. I have willfully not given some music it's proper chance to worm it's way into my heart. I have forsaken a band I liked, and I have been painfully reminded that my forsaking is out there for all to see. Hell, Metacritic excerpted the line "strongly, boringly decent" from my review. The shame. The constant shame.
For Lord, I have seen the light. Verily, I now am forcefully reminded that as much as I like their records (and yea, Shine A Light hath grown on me like a pleasent rash) the Contantines most make sense to me as a live band. And verily, they rocketh.
Help me in the future to remember that the Constantines embody, at their best, one particular archetype of what I believe rock and roll can and should be. And let them write more songs like 'On To You' to remind me of that fact.
Is it the fact that Bry Webb sounds strikingly like Tom Waits to me on the verses? The "oooooh-oh" lines? The bitching keyboards? The pause in the music whenever the line "And ___________ says: I'm on to you" is sung in the middle of the song? The great build up, full of "sha-la-la oooh"s, or that roaring ending?
No, it's none of that, although I love all of it too. It's the feeling Webb loads into the phrase "I'm on to you". In his hands, it's pursuit, it's knowing, it's forboding, it's loving, it's defiant, it's warm. The feel of the song is what gets me. And it's what has gotten me with every Cons song I love.
Amen.
(sorry about all the 'verily's, I'm probably the only one who gets a chuckle out them)
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I have committed the cardinal sin of music reviewing: I have reviewed an album before it's time. I have willfully not given some music it's proper chance to worm it's way into my heart. I have forsaken a band I liked, and I have been painfully reminded that my forsaking is out there for all to see. Hell, Metacritic excerpted the line "strongly, boringly decent" from my review. The shame. The constant shame.
For Lord, I have seen the light. Verily, I now am forcefully reminded that as much as I like their records (and yea, Shine A Light hath grown on me like a pleasent rash) the Contantines most make sense to me as a live band. And verily, they rocketh.
Help me in the future to remember that the Constantines embody, at their best, one particular archetype of what I believe rock and roll can and should be. And let them write more songs like 'On To You' to remind me of that fact.
Is it the fact that Bry Webb sounds strikingly like Tom Waits to me on the verses? The "oooooh-oh" lines? The bitching keyboards? The pause in the music whenever the line "And ___________ says: I'm on to you" is sung in the middle of the song? The great build up, full of "sha-la-la oooh"s, or that roaring ending?
No, it's none of that, although I love all of it too. It's the feeling Webb loads into the phrase "I'm on to you". In his hands, it's pursuit, it's knowing, it's forboding, it's loving, it's defiant, it's warm. The feel of the song is what gets me. And it's what has gotten me with every Cons song I love.
Amen.
(sorry about all the 'verily's, I'm probably the only one who gets a chuckle out them)
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