“The crew compartment is breaking up…”
As much as I loved The Long Winters during the early 2000s, when they were an actual working band and releasing regular records, I find that I appreciate their work more and more as the years go by. Singer/songwriter John Roderick describes his style like this: “The Long Winters songs are about relationships, and intentionally difficult to parse, because they are meant to communicate in an emotional language rather than in a literal language.”
As a listener, Roderick’s songs are little puzzles where your view of the final picture can shift depending on where you are in your life. His songs meant one thing to me when I was in my twenties, and mean something different to me now in my forties.
“The Commander Thinks Aloud” is a song from the 2005 EP Ultimatum. I can still remember first hearing it, completely overwhelmed and mesmerized by the piano figure and the melody and the slow build up to the repeated choruses at the end. I hardly paid attention to the lyrics at that point. I just listened to it over and over, immersed. The music and production were enough for this song.
But then I started to listen more closely, and was drawn deeper into the seemingly inscrutable lyrics. I wasn’t sure what he was singing about exactly…was it a metaphor for a deteriorating relationship? Was it literal? Was it about a plane/shuttle crash?
“We stall above the pole
Still your face is young
As we feel our weight return”
This song also gives me another opportunity to share a wonderful episode of Song Exploder. On this episode, Roderick discusses the piano part that makes up much of the backing music, what the chorus means to him, and Matt Chamberlain’s impact on the song, the way he planned and recorded his drum part(s) (you’ve got to listen to this story).
“That unfolding, dawning realization that we’re not getting out of this…”
Roderick also discusses in detail about what inspired the song. I don’t always want to know what the singer thinks of the song, but in this case, it adds to my appreciation of this amazing song.
(After writing this post and digging back into The Long Winters, I’m tempted to make this a Long Winters channel for the next few weeks. Such an incredible band, and I’ve missed having new John Roderick songs in my life.)
