The crew at NPR’s All Songs Considered recently released a podcast in which they discussed the best music of 2011 so far (listen to them here). During this podcast, producer Robin Hilton says that his favorite song of the year (so far) is the song Helplessness Blues from the Fleet Foxes’ latest album of the same name (click here to download the track for free, or scroll down to listen). He describes the song as follows:
“Every year I’m happier and happier to have my 20s behind me because it was just one long existential crisis for me, you know, ‘what is the meaning of anything, what is all this for, what does work matter’… and this song is all about coming to the understanding that your life doesn’t have to be remarkable to be fulfilling, that you don’t have to build a rocket ship and fly it to the moon or invent a drug to cure cancer or something to have a meaningful, important life, and I feel like this song should be required listening for all twenty-somethings who may be dealing with these same issues and questions…The narrator in that song comes to the understanding that, ‘you know, I want to serve something greater than me, even if I’m a small part of whatever that is.”
Robin hit the nail on the head. I’ve been told, many times, that your twenties are for figuring things out, for “finding yourself” (whatever that means), going through heartache, and working like a dog. I think there is constant pressure for twenty-somethings to figure out what you want to do with your life and go into it full force, when many of us haven’t the foggiest idea what exactly that might be. The song isn’t sad or melodramatic, though; there’s a sense of hope once the vocal harmony kicks in, and you get the feeling that the narrator accepts his situation with a shrug. The opening lyrics of the song are especially fitting:
I was raised up believin’
I was somehow unique
Like a snowflake, distinct among snowflakes
unique in each way you can see
And now after some thinkin’
I’d say I’d rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery
serving something beyond me
But I don’t know I don’t know what that will be
I’ll get back to you someday
Soon you will see
Take a listen to Helplessness Blues–
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