2:30

I review songs I find that’re interesting to me. Generally uneven posting schedule. I don’t rate songs, just ramble and review.

[two-thirtee-tracks]

2) Mausoleum - Rafferty

Tone shift from the previous song. Though this one captures a similar slow coolness in tone and presence as Guide to Poison Tasting. Ignore that these were posted back-to-back!

The song opens with an echo-y and mournful piano melody. It captures the atmosphere of the song being played within a large space, or maybe one built of stone, the mausoleum in question per the title. The piano follows with a guitar’s strumming chords as they play together. Then the vocals beckon the listener closer: and into a macabre long-lost-lover’s dirt-dead plea.

The story in this song is both gothically romantic and cheekily wistful: a skeleton left with only a photo of his lover and he (and a handlebar mustachio). The singer recounts his love for the listener, who is supposedly either dead, reincarnating, or a ghost? It’s unclear how the singer and listener are able to meet again. I like to imagine it’s two unrestful souls making trips to each other’s graves. Or, in a more (somehow) fantastic reading, it’s two soulmates cycling through their deaths that both begin and end at their lover’s tomb, wherein one becomes the wanderer while the other lays to rest, taking turns to walk the earth before returning to their lover in the ‘next century’.

The song finishes with the same tone it starts in, a nod to their cyclical little death dance. It’s a morbid concept for sure! But a rather romantic one, in that your existence and another’s become tied so tightly it turns into a game— or a song, as is the case for Mausoleum. Devotion isn’t quite the concept being underlined through these lyrics… but the reassurance of passing time and of returning love definitely gives the impression. As though to say “I’m going off, and you will too, but I’ll see you on death’s door. Mind my marble coffin while I’m out will you dear?” Death is their date deadline, approached with humor and nostalgia.

[two-thirtee-tracks]

1) Guide to Poison Tasting - C’mon Tigre

Starting this blog off strong with a song I fished out from an old playlist. I don’t remember when I added this song to it, or when I made the playlist, however many years ago.

There’s a slight uncanny lilt to the percussion that grabs your attention, while simultaneously remaining a good backdrop for the drawling guitar and hoarse brassy sax. I believe it’s a tenor saxophone, at least? Either way it really gives the feeling of being played live— not so uniformally mixed the way computer mixing might keep the sounds rigid. I like it!

Won’t be reviewing the lyrics to this one, but the sound itself definitely communicates a viscosity. Slow, dragging, pronounced, it’s like a big cat sprawled out amidst humid foliage. Taking that metaphor further, the last minute or so of the song switches the vibe slightly. That tigre in the wet shade found something interesting to watch. The focus becomes almost intense to hear as the tempo gets faster and the vocals trail upward and grow staggered.

Overall I find the song to be almost addicting— like a good poison you can’t quite spit out! It feels a bit too underground to recommend to someone out of the blue unless they prefer the vibes of this, like old Glass Animals tracks