You leapt from crumbling bridges watching cityscapes turn to dust
Filming helicopters crashing in the ocean from way above…
Every season has a song (if it’s lucky) and though this particular one was released a long time ago, it has quickly become emblematic of this slow-to-start spring. This one still sees dirty snow everywhere, along with a definite chill in the air, and I am more than ready for it to turn the page to a warmer chapter. In the meantime, a smoldering song like ‘Apocalypse’ sets the stage for the Cigarettes After Sex tour that Suzie and I will hopefully be catching in Boston next weekend. Listen and join the enchantment:
Exhaling the languid contentment that comes with a fully satisfying musical moment, I do something I haven’t done in years: start the whole album over again and listen to each song. Such is the case with their most recent release, which reminded me in its moody-as-fuck way how the best music can still resonate with us, no matter how much time has passed since we’ve emotionally thrashed ourselves on the altar of love and obsession.
Got the music in you baby,
Tell me why
Got the music in you baby,
Tell me why
You’ve been locked in here forever & you just can’t say goodbye
Next week’s concert will make them the first band we’ve seen since Madonna (who probably doesn’t really count as a band). While never super-enthusiastic about seeing bands (that was for friends like Ann and JoJo), I still managed to see my fair-share of notable groups. The original Guns ‘n’ Roses on the tour right before the ‘Use Your Illusion‘ albums were released. Skid Row and Pantera. Metallica riding high on ‘Enter Sandman’. I went less for the music and more for the company and the experience. I wanted to feel what all those other fans were feeling – the excitement, the thrill, the emotional journey, and the almost-cathartic communal camaraderie that went along with sharing the experience with others.
Kisses on the foreheads of the lovers wrapped in your arms
You’ve been hiding them in hollowed out pianos left in the dark…
Got the music in you baby,
Tell me why
Got the music in you baby,
Tell me why
You’ve been locked in here forever & you just can’t say goodbye
Your lips,
My lips,
Apocalypse…
A shoulder rubbing up against you in the darkened theater. A wisp of cigarette smoke tickling your nose. A chord that hits your heart, piercing it to find just the place where wounds have gone to heal but never did. In such music there is a glimmer of redemption. In such songs a glimpse of something that gets you through. Chemicals flying, oh I love this…
Go & sneak us through the rivers,
Flood is rising up on your knees
Oh please…
Come out & haunt me
I know you want me
Come out & haunt me
Sharing all your secrets with each other since you were kids
Sleeping soundly with the locket that she gave you clutched in your fist…
When you’re all alone
I will reach for you
When you’re feeling low
I will be there too.
When the wind changes, when the winter heaves its forlorn sigh goodbye and the spring arrives underneath the hidden veil of night, we need something dreamy. Something too dreamy.
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