ca⋅thar⋅sis /kəˈθɑr
sɪs/ The purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, esp. through certain kinds of art, as tragedy or music.
What can I say that hasn’t already been said about Bon Iver‘s For Emma, Forever Ago? So forgive me that the collective blogosphere has been peeing themselves over this album for a full year; I’m just late to the party.
It’s about that time of year where everyone’s feeling down, where winter is almost winning the battle against the summer in our souls, where most of us want to go hibernate in a Wisconsin cabin for a few months the way Justin Vernon did. Many of us would go to get away from the world for awhile, but some might need to purge themselves of their grief over losing a job, a loved one, dealing with a breakup, with a prolonged illness, with things in our lives never quite being what we had planned out. I double-dog-guarantee that NONE of us would be able to create something with so much beauty out of so much pain and sadness.
http://www.cryingwhileeating.com/
Do yourself a favor: Download this album, climb under some very warm blankets on a very cold night, turn the lights off, and listen to it. This is a man’s soul laid bare for us, and as much as I want to keep listening to it, over and over and over, sometimes it’s just too much for me.
Here are my favorite two songs from the album:
P.S. I Googled the lyrics for this post, and I was TOTALLY disappointed to find out the line in the chorus of “Skinny Love” is “I told you to be balanced” instead of “I told you to be badass.” I want my money back.
I totally thought the same thing about the lyrics to Skinny Love and was similarly disappointed. I like it much better as badass and that’s how I choose to sing/hear it.
http://weatherproofing.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-terribly-strange-to-be-seventy.html