Frog Eyes – Tears Of The Valedictorian
This song. THIS SONG. You’ve all had an experience with music in which you never wanted it to end because you knew you would never feel that high again, yea? That’s this song for me. You will never feel as good as you do the first time you listen to “Bushels.” It’s pretty unassuming at first. But when that piano riff starts about 15 seconds in, good luck climbing out of the deep, emotional whirlpool you just fell into. Carey Mercer will wrap his trembling voice around your heart and break it, over and over again in the course of 9 minutes. Like, “Emily” from my first BD Playlist, “Bushels” touches on a wide variety of emotions: dark ones, manic ones, uplifting ones, hopeful ones. The instrumentals are all over the place and they are utterly relentless. But they fit tight, like a world-weary puzzle, a puzzle that says: I’ve seen some shit. And as with most every Frog Eyes’ song, there’s an astute understanding of its self-importance. It’s a very self-referential song, ending on the words, “I was a singer, and I sang in your home.” Which is oddly frightening because for a second you think, “Whoa! How did you know?” And that’s the precise moment you realize you’ve been sucked in and Mercer owns you.