Understanding a Song’s Logic
One of the things I’ve noticed about myself is that often the music I end up liking best isn’t music that immediately appeals to me. The new Wilco album, A Ghost Is Born, is a case in point. Unlike Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which I found to be instantly accessible and endlessly playable, I initially thought of A Ghost is Born as a bit of a letdown. Now that I’ve been a patient listener, however, and really tried to “get” the music rather than expecting an instant, visceral fix, I’m finding it rewarding on a much deeper emotional level.
My favorite track on the album so far is a spare, downbeat, piano-driven song called “Hell Is Chrome.” It sounds like a fairly unremarkable track—until you begin to listen to the lyrics, which describe the songwriter’s encounter with the devil (who is not red, as is popularly imagined, but rather chrome) and his subsequent introduction to a hell that is more a state of eternal numbness than physical torment. Once you ponder this, the song’s deflationary, Lou Reed-esque dynamics make perfect sense, and, in fact, serve to place you effectively in the songwriter’s frame of mind.
The best phrase I can come up with to describe this process is that I begin to understand a song’s “logic.” Sometimes it takes some work to get there, but it’s usually worth the effort.