Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Caroline Smith & The Goodnight Sleeps - Calliope

I'm beyond excited to finally be able to share this Caroline Smith & The Goodnight Sleeps track with you. The last track I shared was "Tanktop" which I liked, but her strongest trait, her voice, is obscured. Someone even left a comment saying they couldn't understand a word. But this one is different. "Calliope" has been a standout track, one worthy of obsession.

The slow start lets you settle into the song until unexpectedly there's a head on collision between folk and indie rock when the drums and bass explode into the song. Sure, she sings about how she's waiting for a boy, but the lyrics I adore are:
"...to make a song a hit, 
make it hit hard in the bone,
move your knees to the beat until you're into it.
When the bottom drops out that's when I begin 
to lose it."
Some songs absolutely hit you that way, it's a top five favorite feeling of mine, and this one achieves that. It makes me think of those concerts I've stood at swaying to the song, and then taken by surprise in an instant, the song arcs and crashes over me like a tsunami, drowning out all other thoughts until there is nothing else in the world but those sounds coming from the stage and my body involuntarily moving to the beat. I live for that moment. And here it is, expressed perfectly in a song.   

The album, Little Wings, will be released on September 20th. For a different side of the song, watch Caroline Smith and Jesse Schuster perform this stripped down version of Calliope inside a former orphanage in Duluth, MN.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...