I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SARA NEUFELD-“Forcelessness” (2013).

Sara Neufeld has a new album coming out on Constellation Records.  Neufeld is the violinist for Arcade Fire–not someone you think of as a “special” violinist or someone who necessarily stands out in the band.  But her violin here is haunting and beautiful.

The album is pretty much her and her violin with occasional accompaniment.  On this track she is accompanied by pianist Nils Frahm (whom I don’t know).  The song was recorded in a parking garage giving it an incredibly expansive sound.

It opens is a somber tone with repeated triplets.  But once the pianos come in, the triplets become slightly more positive.  For a time.

There is something very simple and yet very pleasing about this track–it doesn’t alter itself very much over its three minutes and yet the subtle variations in notes can really affect the mood of the song as it is playing.

[READ: July 15, 2013] “The Eviction Process”

I don’t know why I’m always surprised by stories that go dark.  But this story is very dark indeed.

It begins with two men and an autistic boy (who proves to be the son of one of the men) visiting The Champ in the hospital.  The Champ is one of their roommates and they have come to tell him that he is being evicted.  They are nervous as anything because The Champ is not afraid to use his considerable strength in a fight (and the narrator has a stashed bottle of vodka in his pants that he would hate to see smashed).

But The Champ takes it very well, considering he is now homeless.

Their next stop is back home where the eviction process continues.  The next person is Morgan, but Morgan is passed out from huffing keyboard duster.  So, they’ll get him later.

What is all of this evicting all about?  Well, Jack and the narrator are looking to fix up their house.  Their neighborhood used to be an awful place (with drug dealers everywhere).  It has slowly been gentrified.  Indeed, when they first saw a guy with a tie and a briefcase, it was the scariest day of their lives.  But they have since embraced the change.  Which means cleaning up–getting rid of the drugs and (indulgent) drinking. Fixing up the place, and getting their junkie roommates (who have never paid any money anyway) out of there.

Of course, when when Odie and Will resist, they wish they hadn’t gotten rid of The Champ first.  Especially when Jack has to resort to throwing a baseball at one of them to make his point.

The thing that was even more disturbing than reading about someone getting hit in the temple with a baseball was just how abusive of a relationship the narrator is in.  He lives in perpetual fear of Jack’s outbursts–and they are invariable.  He has learned what to say and how to say it, and he knows that if he says the wrong thing he’ll get hit–just like last time.  The other odd thing was trying to determine the gender of the narrator–which was veiled for much of the story (intentionally or not I do not know).   I’m also not sure if Kris Bertin is a man or a woman.  Which doesn’t matter, but may impact the story in some way.

There is little redemption here, especially when outside forces push in on their hard work.  And there’s no full motive for all of the work they are doing–which including cosmetic interior refinishing.  I feel like there needed to be more to this story, but the parts that were here were really well, not enjoyable, but engaging.