[Being posted early because of looming vacation.] This week's song is "Romulus" by Sufjan Stevens. From his debut album Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lake State, "Romulus" is a heartwrenchingly beautiful song about children growing up with an absent mother.
The simple child-like lyrics and Steven's quiet voice perfectly capture the confusion, sadness, and pain of unrequited motherly affection, and when he plucks at the strings of his banjo it's like he's plucking at your heartstrings. The child of the story struggles with feelings of awkwardness and embarrassment when talking to a mother that he barely knows, while at the same time he desperately wants her to stay in his life. In the last stanza, his feelings of shame towards himself are transferred to the mother, when he sees that her neglectful attitude is not just towards her children, but to her father as well after he died. "She didn't seem to care / She smoked in her room and colored her hair / I was ashamed" is such a simple lyric, but it is absolutely perfectly written.
I had a completely happy childhood and I feel like I shouldn't be able to relate to this song very well, but I can understand exactly what the narrator is going through. Sufjan Stevens has this incredible ability to make you feel exactly what he wants you to feel, and "Romulus" gives me chills when I listen to it.
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2 comments:
I love this song, nice choice :D
oh! in the awful hellhole that is laguardia while i was waiting to leave, i heard this tween w/ pink streaks in her hair that had just arrived in nyc literally scream as she got off the plane "omg!Sufjan Stevens lives here! i bet i can find him at you know, one of those cool little hangouts." hahaha, im still laughing. i hope she finds him. lovely song.
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