SOME BULLETS IN WHICH I FIRE OFF SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS HERE THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME BUSINESS
-- "I used to live. Here."* We have the first earworm from this album, and it serves to (again) show that JD's smarts extend beyond lyrical radditude to things like "knowing which song should be a first single." Which leads me to ...
--The tracking on this album. Clearly, clearly, a music fan set the order here, if for no other reason than that "1 John 4:16" occupies the magical track seven spot (on the vinyl, anyway), which also is the last track on side B of the first record. You need some time after this one, time to walk over to the turntable, take a deep breath, and swap the record out. And to breathe some more.
--Recommended: instead of swapping, just keep moving the needle back. Don't fight this impulse. You want this song. Over and over. You need this song like you've needed "Palmcorder," or "Autoclave," or "The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton" or "Broom People." Indulge that want. Because putting your iPod on repeat won't ever beat physically having to tell your -record player, "Nope, nope. We're doing this again." This will be the song that teaches that lesson. It will also be the song that makes me learn piano.
--Speaking of which, I'm holding out hope that this will be the tour where we see a piano involved, because there are just too many songs that need it now.
--If you haven't attended many Catholic masses (I almost said "if you aren't Catholic," to be truthful) you might not know "the life of the world to come" as a phrase. If you are Catholic, the recontextualizing of this phrase perhaps pointed out something you'd never realized before--that phrase sounds amazing, is musical, and the way that a roomful of people chanting the Nicene Creed lands on it feels much the same way that you perhaps felt the first time you sang "I am gonna make it, through this year, if it kills me."
--I read an interview today (okay fine, I also discovered Fuck Yeah the Mountain Goats! today and thereby bombarded myself with awesome JD stage banter quotes and photos from past tours) where the interviewer said, "So you use your inside voice on this one." And Darnielle agreed with him (noting, well, "it's not as quiet as Get Lonely"). I read that, dumbstruck, thinking, "wow, inside voice's so totally spot on of a description." No "Lovecraft in Brooklyn," indeed.
--"Wake up 60 minutes after my head hits the pillow/ I can't live like this."** The man knows how to tell a story, how to draw an audience in. In medias res, motherfucker.
I'm enjoying this project, but it's time for hanging out with the family now. I can't wait for five more days of documenting my favorite band.
*"Genesis 3:23"
**"Romans 10:9"