Vital Idles - "Cave Raised"

The rest of the album is absolutely fine. It sounds like the sounds that I like. But there's something about this song, this song in particular, that refuses to leave me alone. Maybe it's because I can't find the lyrics online, and so it forces me to slow down, I'm forced to allow the song to gradually reveal itself to me, the way music used to in the old days (IN THE OLD DAYS). And so my relationship with this song is less Tinder-based instant (semi) gratification and more like falling in love. Shall we dance.



This is from one of Bandcamp's Albums of 2018. If the system by which music is connected to listeners through critics and labels is completely fucking broken (and it is), in the sense that the actual music itself--its power to move, shock, surprise, and entertain--is, shall we say, low on the priority list of what critics and labels are looking for, below things like conventionally attractive physical appearance, self-promotion skills, and intra-industry connectedness, then Bandcamp is pretty much the lastest, bestest hope for reversing that trend. Although even if it does, it will one day also morph into industry-controlled hackdom. They all do. Power and money corrupt and all that.

But back to the song. Vital Idles are from Glasgow, but they are also from 21st century dystopic western culture. That is to say they sing of project managers and frustrated ambitions in a voice of proud defeat. Because everything is hard, they struggle to find the beauty in everything being hard. In this song, they find that beauty right around the two minute mark, turning the song from Hip Priest(ess) to holy transubstantiation, blood into bliss.

I am still in the process of falling in love, and so I will admit I don't know everything about this song. The best part is built like water.  And then later, The best part is rare and unexpected. These are human beings who understand things, and feel the need to communicate this understanding with as much passion and intelligence as they can muster. We can compare it to things, if you're the kind of person who likes to know where they stand (spoiler alert: the ground is shifting too much for anything resembling certainty). Young Marble Giants, Fall, Life Without Buildings. But you would do yourself, and do Vital Idles, a disservice by pinning them down, by not allowing themselves to gradually reveal themselves to you. If you're able to be patient, there's nothing in this world you can't accomplish.