heavy rotation
Things I love: songs with happy beats/melodies coupled with sad lyrics. (See: Old 97’s, though the wit in their sad lyrics often slyly undermines them.)
Things I also love (clichéd though it may be): songs that serve as a perfectly fitting theme song for present time.
A month after that unexpected Arcade Fire awakening, I’m no longer listening to The Suburbs on repeat… for now. But I still can’t get enough of this song, in all its pumping, chiming 80s glory. I love how the sound is so big, expansive, and confident, while the lyrics are all about entrapment and doubt.
Arcade Fire — “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”
They heard me singing and they told me to stop,
Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock,
These days, my life, I feel it has no purpose,
But late at night the feelings swim to the surface.
Cause on the surface the city lights shine,
They’re calling at me, “come and find your kind.”
Sometimes I wonder if the world’s so small,
That we can never get away from the sprawl,
Living in the sprawl,
Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains,
And there’s no end in sight,
I need the darkness someone please cut the lights.
We rode our bikes to the nearest park,
Sat under the swings, we kissed in the dark,
We shield our eyes from the police lights,
We run away, but we don’t know why,
And like a mirror these city lights shine,
They’re screaming at us, “we don’t need your kind.”
Sometimes I wonder if the world’s so small,
That we can never get away from the sprawl,
Living in the sprawl,
Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains,
And there’s no end in sight,
I need the darkness someone please cut the lights.
They heard me singing and they told me to stop,
Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock.
Sometimes I wonder if the world’s so small,
Can we ever get away from the sprawl?
Living in the sprawl,
Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains,
And there’s no end in sight,
I need the darkness someone please cut the lights.
And a live version I just found — sounds different from the original (much less “Heart Of Glass”-ish), but still cool. I think I need that gold dress.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L6ZFhZVOx0]
