Lily, a friend of mine, gave me a mix CD with a Mandolin Orange song on it. This was the fourth or fifth mix we'd exchanged, and suffice it to say, I knew there was probably good music on it, and I listened to it top to bottom a couple of times while doing homework, but none of the music grabbed my mind. Months later, one artist on that mix became a lense I view the world through because of how much respect I gained for them through their music. That singular idea is what makes music so mystifying and fantastic to me.
Driving home from school a month ago I was whistling a song, and I had no idea what it was. I realized that the song i created by whistling, I liked, but the song that inspired me, I didn't like so much. This was the song One More Down http://youtu.be/DaTcSul__4Q by The same band as the song above. I couldn't get it out of my head, so I youtubed it. From the tone of version of the song I had heard, I was expecting a skinny Midwestern guy and a his counterpart singing in a sweaty living room to an underwhelmed boom mic operator. I was wrong, and where I was left after devouring all youtube had to offer of Mandolin Orange, was the place parallel to ecstasy found around a perfect song.
Cavalry to me is a perfect song. That isn't to say it's the only one, and that also isn't to say that it will be for any of you, or that it always will be, or always had been for me, but, now, it is. I don't know all of the ingredients that make up a recipe for a song. I understand even less about what makes a recipe perfect for a person. What I do know is the nearly indescribable feeling of listening to a perfect song for the first time, and the process of growing appreciation that follows.
To me, the two metrics I use to judge a song for integrity are it's honesty, and hope. For me those two things are the most venerable qualities in a person. And with cavalry, a tired song about lack of fight and a turn to altruism that hit me after a lot of homework and not a lot of sleep. I feel like all of you are in similar places, in the heat of hard work, so I hope cavalry gives some perspective and reprieve.
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