One of my favorite songs was released last year on Bon Iver's album,
22, A Million. The album features a very particular and obscure sound, and the same can be said about the lyrical content of the short album. The song that I want to discuss lyrically is
715 - CR∑∑KS, which is found early on in the album. The most interesting thing about this song is that it has no instruments, only extensive vocal harmonies, leaving the vocals and lyrics very exposed. The lyrics of the song are very vague and ambiguous, which leaves room for interpretation. The full lyrics are displayed in the video, but they are also
located here.
The lyric has a ton of imagery in lyrics such as "Down along the creek
I remember something" and "low moon don the yellow road". Also the lyrics feature a narrator who is obviously distraught about something that is left to interpretation which is displayed more in Justin Vernon's voice than anything else. His crying vocals on the "turn around you're my A-Team" lyrics are almost physically felt. The most beautiful thing about this lyric is that it is almost entirely up to the listener on what it means, and the delivery of the entire song.
I like how you connect the beauty of the song to it's absence of instruments. Songs that are just the lyrics always are more raw and are listened to differently than your typical songs that have instruments.
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