I only recently have heard of music critic Bob Lefsetz. I’ve taken to reading his blog on occasion. His most recent post “Live With Lonesome” says perfectly something I’ve been feeling lately.
I’ve decided the best album of the year is the one I played the most. It’s a personal best. I may not have heard so much of what you’re into. But of the stuff I played, what I played most was Little Big Town’s “The Road To Here”.
I didn’t know I’d love it. But one song infatuated me to such a degree that I downloaded the rest. I was experimenting. If this experimentation wasn’t free I wouldn’t have taken the leap. Thank god it is and I did.
First and foremost, an album is a collection of great songs. It’s when this ceased to be that we gave up and only wanted the single. Doesn’t matter if there’s thirty minutes of music or ninety, it’s all got to be consistently great. And “The Road To Here” is. There’s a panoply of emotions. Different tracks register on different days. My favorite constantly changes. And I was convinced that the final winner was “A Little More You” until just now, when it was eclipsed by “Live With Lonesome”.
What could be worse? Oh, the single say they’re happy, that they’ve got options. But if you’ve got no one to bounce off of, no one to share your story with, the silence is deafening. You try to fill it. With television, newspapers and books. But none are adequate substitutes for human companionship.
You want to express your anxieties, your fears, as well as share your victories. But only to someone you trust. You don’t trust a one night stand. That’s a conquest, not a relationship. It’s a notch on your belt, but that notch won’t do much for you when you’re home alone, lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. You look for the light in their eyes, the understanding. And then displaying your warts, you attempt to merge. Pick well and your plug fits their socket. But sometimes the wire frays, there’s a short, and the connection burns out. And just that fast you’re thrown back into the pool, treading water, just waiting for another attempt at the high dive, for that exhilaration, that thrill.
If you like this post so far, I beg you to continue reading the rest of it over at Lefsetz’s site.
That’s what music is, a friend. It gets you through the loneliness.
We’re all just looking for something to get us through the loneliness.