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Summer (Butcher Two)
matt pond PA
Emblems
2004

I love stumbling across old mix CDs (I think I have that listed as an "interest" in my profile, haha). For a period of my life between, say 2004 and 2010, I made mix CDs on the regular...averaging about one a month, I suppose. I have them stored in the same big, plastic bin as all of my finished and half-finished notebooks--those mixes are just as much a part of me as my writing is. Each mix is like a snapshot; an honest, but enigmatic dear-diary entry.

Despite the fact that I made a safe-for-Jillian's-ears playlist on my iPod for Monday night, when I got home from a sunny afternoon spent at the park I started rifling through my CDs. I opened up the black portfolio I have stuffed with burned CDs and out tumbled a fingerprint-smudged "Mix for Julie, May 25th, 2005". This was an especially good stumbling-across-a-mix-CD moment because it was very time-capsule-esque...like here is a glimpse of who I was almost exactly seven years ago.

The lack of a track listing piqued my curiosity even further, so I immediately popped the disc into my CD player and, after hearing the opening Beck track, "Girl", The Long Winters' (kind of grating) "Cinnamon" and Arcade Fire's "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)", I thought that it just might be Jill-safe. Then the opening chords of "Summer (Butcher Two)" started up and my stomach tightened--a twinge, an excited pull of my insides. It was a Proust + the madeleine moment (I feel so pretentious making that reference, but whatever, haha)...just a flood, a feeling, something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Like this perfectly happy sensation was glowing in the pit of my stomach and gradually spreading throughout the rest of my body. And it's funny because it's not that I idealize May 2005--it followed a pretty low point, actually...but deep sadness wasn't the feeling that hit me when I heard "Summer (Butcher Two)". Rather, it was this warm, nebulous happiness.

Clearly my current circumstances are impacting my...reaction to the lyrics (haha), but I have always liked them, current circumstances notwithstanding. I like the rhythm of the words...the way they mirror action; the words, and the images they conjure, are short, clipped, direct. I love the way lines like "the summer's here/under clothes hands disappear" sound. There's a familiarity to Matt Pond's voice that adds to that warmth. I like the lightness of the music, it seems perfectly suited to this time of year and to the song's subject. The steady melody of the lead guitar and that messes-with-my-heartstrings cello and the occasional plinks of piano keys echo a tentative, exploring touch.

I know that a matt pond PA song appears on the How to Be Uncertain mix I shared with you last year, nonetheless, I didn't hesitate sharing this other matt pond PA song with you. It was too perfect a moment to keep to myself.