Illogical Paradox

Perfection in a Song

With all the crap you hear on the radio these days–what is it she wants to have, “groupies” or “boobies”??–it can be hard to imagine that there’s new music out there that’s smart, melodic, and the whole heartstring-tugging shebang. But there is. Listen to this:

This is “The Luckiest”, by the piano artist Ben Folds. I’ve been checking out his music a lot lately, and I’ve liked a lot of what I’ve heard. But this song takes the cake. It was released in 2001, so it’s not that new.

I got this song on my computer yesterday or so, and in those 24 hours (a lot of which I’ve spent at school), I’ve somehow managed to listen to the song 28 times. I’m on the 29th right now.

What a beautiful song. The instrumentation, a quiet and subtle mix of piano, strings, and Folds’s own voice is moving. Those three sounds are all there is. No guitars, no percussion, no fake synth-sounds, no backup singers. And yet, I can listen to this 29 times in a row without experiencing anything close to boredom.

The lyrics are like poetry…

What if I’d been born fifty years before you
In a house on a street where you lived?
Maybe I’d be outside as you passed on your bike
Would I know?

That I am
I am
I am
The luckiest

But it’s the details that I’m still noticing and falling in love with. All the piano chords and arpeggios, which are often soothingly predictable, but sometimes unusual and unexpected. The way Folds’s voice cracks as he begins the refrain for the last time.

Every once in a while I find a song like this that reassures me that, even as the people around me begin accepting more and more bullshitty things as “music” and give up poetic lyrics for pornographic descriptions of people having sex in a dance club, music like “The Luckiest” will continue to exist, thrive, and maybe even change the world.

And where was I before the day
That I first saw your lovely face?
Now I see it everyday
And I know.