I have an ear ache. Seeing it written on the computer screen, it looks pretty wimpy. Neither ‘ear’ nor ‘ache’ has much emotional intensity to it. Hell, most of us (and its damn near universal with the fairer sex) punch needles through our ears for cosmetic reasons by the time we’re in middle school (I didn’t because my father told me that I did not want to do so no matter what outside pressure told me I wanted to do –dizzyingly circular logic that effectively hemmed my attempts to rebel). Thus, it appears that I am complaining now about an ailment which pigtailed Beiber-fever girls experience in recreation. ‘Middle school’ on the other hand, is a phrase whose brutality will never be called into question. I am experiencing ‘middle school’, but it’s in my ears and it effing aches, ok?
I promised you that I would not make this blog about personal asides. I intend to mostly keep that promise. I am only mentioning the ear ache to explain what I am doing awake at 5:30am (screaming in pain); how I am finding the time and energy to post a second song recommendation this morning (there is nothing else to do this early, sleeping is out of the question, and the walk-in clinics don’t open until 8am); and to damper any expectation (let’s pretend) that multiple postings per day will regularly occur (I intend not to go much longer feeling like I am giving birth to a scared pufferfish through my ear canal.)
On to the music! Today’s bonus recommendation is ‘Woke Up New’ by ‘The Mountain Goats’.
‘The Mountain Goats’ consists of John Darnielle and other people that are not John Darnielle. But really, it’s all John Darnielle. He writes the songs, sings them, and plays most the instruments. I am not sure what the other band members do. I think one is a microphone stand.
John (yep, we’re on a first-name basis) has a unique singing voice that rests on the tight ledge between melody and conversation. He doesn’t ‘sing’ as much as ‘phrases with melodic lifts and pauses’. Don’t know the difference? Then you don’t know ‘The Mountain Goats’.
‘Woke Up New’ is a great example of this technique. The song chronicles “the morning that I woke up without you for the very first time” with a range of emotions (“I felt free/ and I felt lonely/ and I felt scared”) straightforwardly disclosed with none of the pronounced affect of a lost-love ballad. He trusts that the listener will understand his emotions and color within the lines that define them. He’s not playing it up for an audience; he is truly “the only person there” in song and performance.
Additionally, he cleverly magnifies small asides to draw out core sentiments that would feel uncomfortably earnest and overstuffed if said more directly:
“The first time I made coffee for just myself, I made too much of it/
But I drank it all just cause you hate it when I let things go to waste.”
In that aside is the relationship, break-up, and aftermath economically packaged into two user-friendly stanzas. If you order now, he’ll even throw in the recovery:
“And the wind began to blow and the trees began to pant/
And the world in its cold way started coming alive/
And I stood there like a business man waiting for the train/
And I got ready for the future to arrive.”
This deal was made to move!
Of final, but not lesser, note; the chorus is simply heartbreaking. I won’t spoil it with my customary sarcasm or low-brow wit. No, I am keeping the chorus locked up in a padded case on a high shelf. You can play with the verses, but the chorus is for me.
The link to the music-video of the song is:
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