So I rarely give songs the kind of treatment I give albums. I like ranking albums on a critical level. More importantly, I can enjoy listening to them. Songs are different. When I hear one, I have to hear at least a couple more to fill emotionally fulfilled. And critically, I rarely say I like one song more than another. My favorite tracks from the last 5 years are "Holocene" by Bon Iver and Destroyer's "Kaputt." After that, I can't rank them. But this is 2014 and I'm 23 years old and at this time in my life, I need Benji.
I was also going to write about "I Can't Live Without My Mother's Love" (a rugged, 46 year-old man confesses his deep love for his mom) and "Carissa" (capturing the beauty, the realities and the fragility of the death of a loved one), but perhaps I'll save those for another day. To spare your time no longer (and in no ranked order), here are my 2 favorite songs of 2014.
I WATCHED THE FILM THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME
I listened to classic rock and was unaware of any new music at all for a year or 2 in middle school. I wanted to play guitar like Jimmy Page and started playing around 7th grade. Like Mark Kozelek, "I learned to play guitar while everyone else was throwin' around a football." Also like Mark, I too was "always a melancholia kid" and after so many years, I still "cannot shake the melancholia." There's a certain aesthetic for me when I watch a movie I loved when I was younger. It brings back other memories from that age. There's 1 ringing xylophone note played about halfway through the song that shines like a light from an old projector. Throughout its 10:30 length, there's a *ahem* "really pretty" acoustic guitar part that repeatedly cycles like a projector reel. Every verse tells a different story. Zeppelin. His sadness. His love for the music world. Beating up a kid when he was younger. People who have died in his life. The man who gave him a recording contract. ETC. The song outros with a Led Zeppelin III-esque mandolin part. Then it just ends so suddenly; like someone abruptly took the needle off the record player. This is a very sad song. But mostly just beautiful. There are a couple of breaks from the cycling guitar for some heavenly backing vocals reminiscent of the outro to "Going To California." I guess we all have some sad memories. "If anything close to me at all in the world died... to my heart, forever it would be tied. I'll go to my grave with my melancholia & my ghost will echo my sentiments for all eternity."
MICHELINE
The scariest song on the album just finished and there's on 2 tracks left. Chances are, we've reached the climax, right? "Richard Ramirez Died Today Of Natural Causes" me be Benji's darkest moment, but "Micheline" is the most joyous. Very few songs in the world make me smile like this one. He talks about "feeling somewhere between happy and sad," yet for me, there's no sadness here at all. This song is the sound of children playing in the yard across the street from your porch rocking chair on a summer night. Each verse tells a different story. He starts off telling about the mentally handicap girl who lived down the street from him in his youth. He then reminisces of his old friend Brett who passed away in 1999. The last 2 verses cover fond memories with his grandma, mostly from when he was very young. He recalls the first time he ever saw an ocean, a hummingbird, the movie Benji. Despite some bittersweet moments brought up, everything about this song makes me happy. Like when you cry tears of joy at a small town funeral. He spouts out a lifespan of memories in a *ahem* "very short" 6 minutes. And if it's any consolation, I love the few piano notes added in. Like "Carissa," this song reminds us that life is so fragile and so beautiful. Your grandma deserves a song. So does your mom. And your friend Brett. And the handicapped girl down the road. "She had dreams like everyone else."
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