Foreground Music

Most music, even some of the best, can play in the background and serve its purpose in those moments that require it to do so. Every so often, a song peeks through the ranks of a playlist to elicit a smile or maybe even a look of disgust followed by a quick track change. Then there's every song on Bon Iver's self titled album.










You simply can't go on with your day when something like Perth enters the atmosphere. My productivity literally drops to zero and I am drawn to attention like a schoolboy in the principal's office. Every note and especially every vocal pirouette that this virtuoso composes is pure magic. Even his covers sound entirely new. Today I stumbled upon his cover of I can't make you love me, first performed by Bonnie Raitt. My workday came to a halt as I listened to it three times in a row. Lately, only two things have had that power over me; music and your latest milestones. As I write this, I am being driven home by your mother with you in the backseat innocently composing one of your first, albeit completely unintelligible, groundbreaking arias. I daydream of your Perth, but also of your Are You Gonna Go My Way?, your Don't Stop Believing and even your Baby One More Time, should it find a way to tug at your heartstrings. What will you consider epic? Understated and beautiful? What, if anything, will you run home to share with me? Whatever it is, I'm counting the days.