On the surface, TLW,TSW is about youth and growth, riding in cars, smoking (or not smoking) cigarettes, and being in, from, or on the way out of Florida. And it is. But it’s so much richer and deeper than that.
TLW,TSW is about movement and motion.
Moving ahead. Falling backwards. Running in place.
Stretching for something just out of reach.
Longing for someone just out of touch.
Movement through time (limited) and through space (infinite).
Moving through good days and bad days.
Who you are and who you were.
The pilgrimage through the path of human emotions.
The operation of the vehicle of the human body.
The voyage deep into the human mind.
The creation of every human thought.
The one constant: change. It never slows. It never stops.
Perpetualperpetualperpetual motion.
That makes it all the more understandable that the best line of the record is all about stopping that creation, ending that operation, calling off the voyage, the deeply human desire to want to get off the ride so much that you yell “STOP!” at the top of your lungs:
I just wanna be a cog in a massive machine that breaks and makes the whole thing useless. I’ll break.
The impossible desire to have control over the never slowing march of change and time.
All that change and motion makes it hard to stay centered and sane. That motion, like the way the smoke from a cigarette rises, curls, and dissipates into the air, constantly reminds us of the ephemerality of everything.
It was here, now it’s gone.
You were here, then you’re gone.
Marking the passing time and taking stock of incremental change is difficult:
I don’t know the difference between what got lost or ruined and things that just feel different.
Did you change, did they change, did everything change? One, two, or three of those things are always true.
Like two objects hurtling through space, as we all are, the distance between us is constantly changing. Do what you can now, while the distance is close enough to still see each other.
Life is long and life is slow, but life is fleeting and life is momentary.
Stop. Look around.
Take the long, slow way to help put all that other motion in perspective.
Go. Look around.
Take the long, slow way to make the most of your time, a thing we will never get enough of.
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The Long Way, The Slow Way is out now. It’s one of the best records of the year.
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Lately I am also listening to a lot of (so you should listen to a lot of) Scarlet Street, Palette Knife. Short Fictions, Carly Cosgrove, Pool Kids, and Momma.