I think this is a no-brainer to anyone that's ever heard it. The hooks in this song jerk around like a rollercoaster and send you screaming, plummeting in the thrilling depths of Jeff Mangum's melancholy. I just pitched a story about Jeff Mangum that got not-quite-rejected by a magazine I like, so I am in high NMH obsession mode today. I mean, look at these lyrics, and imagine them issuing from the fevered mind of a shy sensitive boy who was about to become completely famous and as a result would go into hiding. All that love tangled with death, the whole of goddamn WWII squeezed into a metaphor for his own broken heart. I don't know why I'm all caught up on lyrics lately, because usually it's the sound of a song that gets me. Maybe because lyrics just don't make much sense anymore, any half-baked imagery will do - so when something is atom bomb huge, it tears me up. Watch!
MAN that song is good. I saw NMH play at this little indie rock festival thing in Tallahassee in like 1996. My best memory was sitting at this table smoking cigarettes and eating a Frosty from the Wendy's across the street from the bar, and this dude comes up to me and asks for a light for his cigarette, and I give him one, and then after he left my friend Jason was like YOU KNOW WHO THAT WAS DON'T YOU? OH MY GAWD IT WAS JEFF MANGUM etc etc (all mid90s indie rock fanboy) and I was just like "Oh." I hadn't heard them play yet - they were playing that night. After the show, I sort of knew what the big deal was.----traci
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