Song in Focus: 'Roslyn' by Bon Iver and St. Vincent

I have been listening to this particular song like a maniac for the last two days and have still not managed to free myself from its intoxicating clutch. I have been smitten by Bon Iver lately and have been listening to his less popular, less talked about songs which is exactly what people do when they're interested in the poet's method of poetry. Although 'Roslyn' was performed by Bon Iver and St. Vincent and had been used as a soundtrack in 'Twilight: The New Moon Saga' (that movie is lame, oh God start talking about lame) - not a lot of people remember the song because of the song anymore. Also, in the film industry, what's past is past quicker than you can actually sum up the concept of present in your head. 

I had been dragged into his aura when I listened to 'Love More' this week followed by 'Roslyn' but while 'Love More' feels like outer space and whale calls, 'Roslyn' is even stronger as poetry and then the composition reminds me of mountains and kisses and a slow, soft fall down the course of a foggy rift, closer to silence, closer to echoes. 

(Photograph Source: Open Spotify) 

The reason why I absolutely adore Vernon is because his songs are so intricately associated with his emotional being that it shows - in all its beautiful, incandescent, all-encompassing glory, it shows itself, bares itself aloud effortlessly. His poems, his songs, are then him in a certain form. 

Lyrics

Up with your turret

Aren't we just terrified?

Shale, screen your worry from what you won't ever find

Don't let it fool you

Don't let it fool you

Down

Dancing round, folds in the gown

Sea and the rock below

Cocked to the undertow

Bones blood and teeth erode, they will be crashing low

Wings wouldn't help you

Wings wouldn't help you

Down

Down towards the ground, gravity smiled

You barely are blinking

Wagging your face around

When'd this just become a mortal home?

Won't, won't, won't, won't

Won't let you talk me

Won't let you talk me

Down

Will pull it taut, nothing let out

The last part of this post had been written last afternoon. It has been more than a day since then, and I started playing the song on my ukulele when it was dawning outside after an almost sleepless night. I have listened to the song countless times since then and it probably was echoing in my head even when I was thinking of other things. The last time I got this addicted to a song was probably when I was fourteen and had listened to 'Wish You Were Here' for the first time! This is perhaps the biggest analogical compliment I can ever gift to a song. 

While trying to play the song on the ukulele, what I realised was that the composition is based on a rotational pattern of very simple notes, which can be morphed into a little more complex tones - as in you can use a combination of Dm and Dm7 instead of using Dm7 or Dm individually, you can alter the strumming patterns. Either way, if you got a high-pitched voice (which fortunately or unfortunately is the situation with me) - this song might sound beautiful! I am not sure if a more bassy baritone would do the trick in this case. 

The song sounds very mysterious, to begin with, and as the readers would know - I have a habit of relating songs with seasons and time. The twist in the plot of the story is that I absolutely have no clue if this is more of a day or night song, I think it's more of a dawn or dusk song ; probably more dawn than dusk because there's an element of 'lift', of vanishing into thin air, of elevation...something that is rising and not sinking anymore. 

The lyrics are absolutely Bon Iver kind of lyrics. You could tell they belong to Justin Vernon once you go through the intense, intimate kind of poetry that hits the core of your neurons the moment you begin paying attention, and there is not much reservation left not to. I still am listening to the song on repeat as I write
this down and will be playing it for at least until it sounds like itself in my hands! 

You don't have to have a favourite genre to listen to this. This is so appealing and so  convincingly beautiful and attractive, I doubt even if lovers of only heavy metal would be able to ignore this in its totality.