The uber geeks

Augie March - The Cold Acre

Song Name: The Cold Acre
Artist: Augie March
Album: Moo, You Bloody Choir

Why This Song?:

For the triumphant return of Song of the Week, I have decided to go down under with my musical selection. This is all thanks to the heads up from my brother, Ryan, to watch the video for Augie March’s single “One Crowded Hour.” After watching the video, I was interested to see what else Augie had to offer.

After listening to Moo, You Bloody Choir for a couple minutes, it was easy to see why this band was one of the most critically and commercially successful bands in Australia.

Augie March isn’t your typical “rock” band. They are much more than that. From insightful, poetic songwriting to beautifully constructed arrangements, there is something special and ambitious about Augie March.

I have heard some people say that the music seems bland. While I can understand their feeling, I couldn’t disagree more. While not typical or in the least upbeat, Augie March’s Moo is genuinely interesting, thought-provoking, and deliberately paced.

This song isn’t a fun song. It has a soaring chorus that seems like it should make you happy, but it still feels cold as its apt title suggests. It fits perfectly with the bleakness of winter. While listening, it’s hard not to imagine walking by yourself on a grey, gloomy day encompassed by mountains filled with leafless, lifeless trees while deep cold penetrates every ounce of your body.

‘There’s a place I’ve been told, and when I grow old I may go there / I’ve been told that my family’s bones may lie under the snow there / And with my little bag, and with my little dog / Who sleeps on my chest when he can’t find a hole in a log / And when I go, my dog will know to leave his old fellow and find a new pillow, / far from the chill of the cold acre.’

For me, it’s hard not to feel almost entirely saddended by the song. It’s so poignant, it almost burrows a hole into my stomach. It brings up feelings of complete loneliness. It brings up feelings of how short life is, how sometimes it can feel empty when not looked at from the right perspective, and how sometimes, it is so hard to fight those feelings.

This weekend I was in my basement cleaning out some things and found notebooks filled with tenant information written from the early 40’s. Payments were recorded and tracked, filling up years worth of pages. No doubt, all the tenants who lived here before are long gone and buried, some remembered by their family, others not.

To me, this song is flipping through antique pictures and notebooks seeing parents who loved their children, children who loved their parents and siblings, and children who had to see their parents die, and unfortunatley, sometimes the other way around. This song is realizing that no matter how much information we think we can gather from these images and pages, there is nothing that could truly convey the real feelings of that time, place, and people that were there. When I listen to this song, it’s that type of deep, unrelenting sadness that oozes out.

Though the true meaning of the lyrics may not even come close to resemble what I get out of them, that is how the song resonates with me. Whether the song is about literal death, futility, absurdity, the need to feel a connection to anything we possibly can, or anything else in between, there is one thing for certain - this is a band that doesn’t make empty, simple, or generic music. No, this is a band that deserves a chance to make you think.

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Song of the week

Sara Bareilles - Between the Lines
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