The Color of Life
Tully Rohrer
December 10th, 2006
I was in need of some color after the week of black and whites. Such outstanding color next to the snow…
Sad songs always have the strongest emotional impact. Within the last year, Emily Haines (of Montreal band Metric) lost her father to cancer. Taking a break from Metric, Haines laid a number of the old tunes floating around in her brain to tape. The result was the album Knives Don’t Have Your Back, an album ripe with despair and loss. Our Hell is the opener from the album, and focuses on her father’s death. This was the first song I heard from the album, and to me, it still resonates the strongest and certainly contains some of the most heartbreaking lyrics. The most interesting line is “Our hell is a good life.” Haines likely meant it in an inspirational, optimistic way, but it can also be interpreted the opposite way. Then there’s the closing lyric: “That’s why I tried to save you. But it can’t be done… it can’t be done.” In addition to containing the most poignant lyrics of the year, Our Hell also features incredible, focused production: listen closely and you’ll hear some percussion in the form of gasping breaths - making an achingly sad song all the more haunting. It is certainly one of the most impressive compositions of the year, and worth comparing to my favorite song of last year, Sufjan Stevens‘ Casimir Pulaski Day.
Favorites of 2006:
#16: Islands - Rough Gem
#15: The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 3
#14: Headlights - Owl Eyes
#13: Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye
#12: Thom Yorke - The Eraser
#11: Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton - Our Hell
along with alex m, the last song, winning, i think its called, is also of the quality of the first two songs
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I love the colorful green and oranges in the picture. It amazes me how there is life even at the coldest temperature.
As for the musical choice, I love Emily Haines’ new album. I just bought it about two weeks ago and it has been on repeat ever since. Our Hell and Doctor Blind are two of my favorite songs off of the album.