I have found myself to be a bit on the obsessive side over the past month of my life. I was again moved back to part time at work (which really means part time pay, which is just over sustainable) and alongside that came extra hours, even days, of leisure free time. Now you might think that I would use this time to do what I love. That I would use it to peruse music blogs, stream tracks from myspace to last.fm, attend shows, and download bootlegs. But for some reason I haven’t done any of those things (although I did score some rare tickets to see Sufjan in Bloomington in a few weeks).
I guess I shouldn’t really say “some reason” like it’s this ambiguous metaphysical reason that’s leaning upon the edge of my subconscious. I realized today exactly what the situation is. When I have too much free time, without structure, without a framework that keeps me busy and organized I drift into a mode that is somewhat lazy, partially obsessive, and mostly bent on finding a path of least resistance. And so I’ve been doing what every quarter aged person with too much time on their hands does in the United States (or really the entire world). And that has been nothing. Nothing at all.
Oh sure I’ve listened to music, I’ve played video games, and I’ve complained to my friends about my lack of adventure (and perversely my lack of will to seek said adventure), but mostly I’ve done nothing with my time. Nothing at all (well nothing at all that I could show you and say “look what I have done.”)
And so that brings me to this post about The Weakerthans track entitled Night Windows. I love this band, I love this track, and I love the album it hails from (Reunion Tour (amazon) (itunes). In fact I love the album so much it has been the only album I’ve listened to in my car over the past three weeks. I finally took it out after I realized just how obsessed I’ve become with the album; how stuck I’ve become in this routine of listening to one thing over and over again (I mean c’mon, I actually have memorized, word for word, 9 of the 11 tracks on the album).
mp3 : The Weakerthans - Night Windows
And all this rambling brings me to this track. This track written about losing someone. This track which I believe is the perfect commentary on the war the USA is currently fighting (in two countries no less). This song is quietly desperate and melancholic. It’s filled with honest emotions and genuine heartache. And I know every word as if I wrote it myself.
It’s been said that John Samson (lead singer of The Weakerthans) wrote this song for a friend of his whom died in the war in Afghanistan. It’s also known that the title is lifted from a painting by the artist Edward Hopper. It’s a beautiful song and I feel that if I don’t share it with everyone it will be stuck in my head for ages and I won’t ever listen to another album.
+ The Weakerthans @ twf hype elbows site myspace amazonmp3 itunes
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