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This is a song that resonates with me a lot - mostly because of its rambling slice-of-life philosophical prose about the tedium of life, but also because it yearns for a semblance of stability within it, whilst at the same time trying to unschackle itself from it completely. I love it's bi-polar nature and its down-to-earth vocals, like the ramblings of an older brother trying to teach you the ways of life, whilst still discovering them himself.
One snippet that I particularly love:
and I can't help but think That somewhere someone is listening in But all the words that I kept in my pockets Jotted down on supermarket receipts At base turned out to be Solid masonry
Another song where the vocals are sung plain and the video is filled with nostalgic scenes, which for me grants it the seal of 100% authenticity. The melody is mesmerizing, the lyrics whisper words of teenage years long gone by, and those warm care-free summers that seemed like they would never end.
Back when your devices did not seem all that important in the grand scale of things. If this is how I feel in my thirties, I can't imagine how people in their eighties must feel about it. This song is a warm hug from a loving parent.
Hot night, crow's fight, beetle's in the firelight
This is in the same tone as the Radar Brothers song, but it's longer and is definitely a must for people who love long outro's. It's not a complex song, with very easy predictable chord shifts, and words that tug on the theme of getting old.
That being said, it's a song that ages the listener gracefully -- the sun may be setting surely on the horizon, but seems like it glistens at the edge of the ocean forever as you imperceptibly rise in altitude until you break out into the freedom of space. The song transcends the sense of loss and nostalgia it initially evokes, and guides us into a hopeful limitless future. Love it.
And now for something different. Caution: this is a terrible terrible song. I detested it for many years, because it sounds like something a bossy child would come up with.
However, with time I've grown to appreciate just how complex it actually is, where it's constantly bridging between different moods (I can count at least five distinct melodies), and how the lyrics are deliberately written in a hard-to-parse manner like they're almost Easter Eggs for true fans (of which I am not one).
Try singing along to this nonsensical line during the chorus (0:35) and getting the syllables to line up with the melody:
The spotlight's shining, heard you had something to say The hourglass is pouring, your boring crowd fades away
This song for me is a farewell to the Silver Age of the Internet, when Neil Cicierega ruled supreme with his catchy meta-prose, with themes of paranoia, conspiracy, the supernatural, love, and dated tech. The song "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the same album is also very good with similar themes.
Back then (~2000-2010) the internet was this mystical place of infinite possibilities if you just knew the right term to search, and each search would bring you to a deeper web of cooky harmless individuals who want to share their cooky harmless ideas with you.
Nowadays, some of those cooky individuals grew their base and became heavily politicized and the whole conspiracy deep-dive of the internet no longer carries that powerless warm bohemian charm it used to, but there are still corners of the web where they still exist in their late 90s rotating gif glory.
This song unironically kicks ass. If you're ever feeling down, just give it a quick listen.