Why I really like one of Iron and Wine's songs

Because it’s so illuminating when I generalize over whole artists and/or albums, I thought I might treat everybody and use this post to focus on a specific track off a specific 2007 album that I think is particularly noteworthy. The track is “Carousel,” off of Iron and Wine’s The Shepherd’s Dog, and it is both just enough Iron and Wine to tolerate (while still maintaining that neo-folk rusticity that all the folkheads love)  and almost entirely unlike other tracks so as to be surprisingly refreshing.

Right about now, you might be objecting, “Hey! Iron and Wine is great!” And to that objection I say I will respectfully bite my tongue. Don’t mistake my ambivalence for ignorance -- I do recognize that there’s top-tier musicianship at work here. And while I can be swooned into heavenly twilight by some of these melodies as easily as the next, I feel that Beam recycles imagery so much (innocence, naked people, pastoral settings, rusticy things, etc.) that it just simply isn't effective anymore.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, we can get right down to it. Carousel is just an all-around fantastic song, start to finish. Here’s why: it’s nearly the perfect distribution of light and shade, both in terms of lyrical content and progression (and that always adds a level of texture to the song otherwise missing); back to its lyrical content -- the profundity of the themes explored in the song is understated enough to be both relatable and abstract (recipe for cerebral elation); and finally, it’s just one of those songs that has the potential to give you the “aha moment,” as only music, literature, and (perhaps) religion can do -- a moment of total euphoria and clarity, which is simultaneously transcendent and grounded in reality. Probably a feeling you’ll never forget if you’re lucky enough to experience it. And the beauty about music is that it’s the perfect trigger for nostalgia. Now, this may be good or bad, depending on your perspective, but my personal opinion is that it’s one of the most mysterious and powerfully overwhelming experiences an individual can have; a brief glimpse at the heart of life through the superficiality of the mundane.

So here’s to your “aha moment,” whenever and whyever that may be.

via albumoftheyear.org