When it comes to art, there is a sharp division between the concepts of ability and talent. Anyone, I repeat, ANYONE can hear the most beautiful music in their head, see the most beautiful painting, envision a scene in a play or book; anything is within anyone’s reach. But the difference between people who don’t create art and those who do is that artists have the ability to take whatever is in their minds and transform it into something that other people can experience. Doing that is the biggest challenge I face with my own music, and I’m sure that others run into the same difficulties. It takes a lot of time and effort, and discipline. Many times I’ll record a song, get frustrated that it’s not as great as what I heard in my head while I was writing it, and toss it out.
So artists who have the ability to do this flawlessly just stun me. I wrote about Passion Pit’s “Sleepy Head” in a recent post, and when I listen to the song, I know that what I’m hearing is exactly what Michael Angelakos heard while he was writing the song. I am humbled when I listen to this, knowing that when Angelakos recorded this song, he said to himself, “Let’s put a handclap right THERE. Throw in a run on the glockenspiel at THIS measure.” It’s staggering, how someone can dissect the noise in their minds so flawlessly and easily.
So the music in this post is all going to be songs that provoke that reaction in me. It may not even be music I particularly care for, but what they all share is the flawless transposition of their creators’ ideas into something that everyone can experience, and that is what makes my favorite music truly transcendent.
The first song I present for your listening pleasure is “Leviathan, Bound” by Shearwater. This song is terrifying and beautiful, and I love that the ID3 tag of this mp3 lists the genre as “dark water.” The strings strike somewhere deep within my psyche, and the piano, harpsichord, glocks, and the little hint of tremolo guitar all layer on top of each other, enhancing but mirroring each other’s sound. The harmonies just — give me chills. This is, sad to say, the only song by Shearwater I’ve heard, and I know that the indie press is loving all over this, so maybe I’ll try to hear a little more of their stuff. Holy crap, was that a harp I just heard? This song rules.
Our next selection is a Stevie Wonder song – the closing track from his 1972 masterpiece “Talking Book.” Now, some might accuse Stevie Wonder of having an edge in being more deliberate with his musical ideas (I’m tempted to make an awful pun here and call them “innervisions”), since his sense of hearing is understandably enhanced. Either way, this song is as close to perfect as I think most of us will ever come. I’m a huge sucker for layers and layers of harmonies, especially when they’re all interweaving vocal lines, and every note, every breath, every syllable of this song is perfectly realized and executed.
Random interjection: When I worked at a museum up on Broad Street, my walk to and from work was about half an hour, and I’d bring my mp3 player with me. I was working my way through Stevie Wonder’s string of beautiful albums from the early 70s that I don’t think ANYONE will ever match, and when I got to the end of “Talking Book” and hit this song, I said, “Aww, crap, I’m never gonna get all the way through these albums,” because I immediately listened to “I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will be Forever)” over and over again (and over again) for about two weeks straight.
The third and final song for you all is “The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is out to Get Us!” from Sufjan Stevens’s “Illinois” album. This album is one of my favorites of all time, ALL TIME, and you need to buy it immediately. It was hard to pick just one track from this album to single out, but this is my favorite at the moment. I’m playing it right now, as I’m writing this, and I can’t really think of any words to come close to how beautiful and wonderful and perfect this song is, so I’m not really going to try. Just listen to it on repeat as many times as you can stand – I first heard it almost three years ago and I still hear something new every time I hear it. I know that this is exactly what Stevens heard in his mind, and it kills me that he can pull this off so flawlessly. Sufjan Stevens, you damn talented bastard.
So have fun, get lost in these songs, and let me know when you come back out again. I just found out today that I will be internetless for about two weeks, and I’ve just promised that I’ll be updating this daily! I’m trying to write as many entries in advance of me losing the modem on Thursday as possible, and I already have a few days’ backlog, but it might not be EVERY day that I talk to you. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, because there’s SO much music I need to tell you about!
Stevie Wonder – I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)
Sufjan Stevens – The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!
