These past several weeks of indoor life have been a good opportunity for all of us for catching up on music—whether brushing up that little piece we’ve always wanted to play, spending time with a challenging album, revisiting old favorites from a decade ago. I’ve found myself doing all of the above: anything to incentivize myself from defiantly marching out the front door. I’m also imagining (hoping, really) that I’ll appreciate hearing this or that quarantine-era song again in a few years and blurt out, “Gosh, remember social distancing?”
A couple months ago I grabbed guitarist Jeff Parker’s new album Suite for Max Brown, whose opening track is bound to be that mnemonic trigger for my future self. I mostly love its chunky, dissonant piano chords, but its opening lyrics are especially resonant in our new sheltered routines:
Everyone moves like they’ve someplace to go
Build a nest and watch the world go by slow
We didn’t quite anticipate nesting like this in the first months of 2020, nor did we anticipate our world’s abrupt slowness, but here we are. Have a listen–not like you’ve someplace to go, right?