#BESTTHINGS2011 // BILL CALLAHAN “Riding For The Feeling” (Drag City)
It may seem unfair to highlight just one song off an album that in and of itself qualifies as a #bestthing2011, but it would be more of a disservice to not give a song as perfect as Apocalypse’s “Riding For The Feeling” its due. Classic in its post-Smog era Bill Callahan formula, “Riding” is an airy number, deceptively light but really heavy as hell. A softly-strummed acoustic guitar guides the journeyman narrator on another westward trip, adorned tastefully with warm organ and electric-lead lines. Thematically, it’s the centerpiece of the album. Lyrically, it’s anchored by one of Bill Callahan’s finest signature anti-poetics - “In conclusion, leaving is easy when you have someplace you need to be.” “Riding” reminds us that heading west isn’t always about expansion, manifest destiny or territorial pursuit. Sometimes it’s just about needing to leave.
Bill Callahan is on kind of a hot streak lately. His last record, 2009’s Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle, was probably his best of a 20+ year career and Apocalypse bears the weight of that burden nicely. There are other tracks worth mentioning like album opener and westward theme-setting “Drover” as well as the heavy-handed revisionist nationalism of “America!”, but “Riding” is of a higher order entirely. It’s one of those eternal songs, the kind of track that could be played on repeat from here on out without much objection from most among us.
Bill Callahan - “Riding For The Feeling” from Apocalypse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYg6eIH7qR8
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#BESTTHINGS2011 is a series focusing on the “best things” released in 2011. Bucking arbitrary numerical distinction, these postings will appear in no particular order with no particular concern for whether they are original releases or reissues from this year. I’m hoping to post one a day for the remainder of the calendar year or until I run out of best things to write about. Not sure which will come first.
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