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Props to Rothkoid for mentioning 'I See A Darkness'. That song is bleak perfection: the battle between hope and despair is continous, and , as Jack Fear says about 'Downtown', that's what makes it so affecting. It starts off with a quiet, possibly drunken confession about how much the narrator cares for his unnamed drinking partner, and in fact for everyone else - "you know I have a love, a love for everyone I know" - but there are Bad Things coming, and the big question is, can they get through it? Ultimately there's just enough hope in the song, I think, for it to be uplifting, in that kind of oddly cleansing way that comes after gazing into the abyss (melodramatic music critic ahoy!). It's always darkest before dawn.
Other nominations: lots of Tindersticks stuff, particularly off Curtains, particularly 'Dancing' and 'Walking'.
Plus Mobb Deep's 'Streets Raised Me', which might be because I was coming up when I heard it first, but not necessarily. Listen to it late at night, in a big, strange city, and you will feel its power...
"Why'd you have to raise me this way?
I'm surprised we alive today
But how long only time can say
Forever you're a part of me..." |
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