A question to ponder: does this song change radically halfway through because it wanted to, or because it had to? The section built around the “we’re waiting to go right now” line is a sunspot flare, massive and powerful and blinding in its beauty. I listen to that 45 seconds and think that there’s no container big enough to hold a song full of moments like that. Not even one owned by Arcade Fire or U2. So the song has to mutate into something else to prevent us from melting away.
It serves a nifty purpose for me as my final entry in this volume: a wonderful anthem that supports previous entries that suddenly takes off in another direction. Maybe it’s just me fighting my nature, because I could stay in glorious-bombast-anthem land forever, blind and blissed out. But if Bound Stems can make a hard left into another territory—somewhere jaunty and sunny and with trumpets—then what happens when this mix does as well?
m. joosse
Filed under: Vol 02, Bound Stems, Mixtape, NEIMT
