Song of the Night: Beck "The Golden Age"

I've been in kind of a Beck mood... though, just saying that could mean anything, depending on the album you're on. Currently, I'm more in the Sea Change era.

This is one of those songs you have on while you drive on the country side, letting the wind blow through at night. Obviously those are part of the lyrics, but those have another meaning as well. I'm not going to explain them because I feel they're fairly self explanatory, but this song essentially sums up how I felt after graduating college.

I'm supposed to be starting off this new life without a structured plan to guide me, like school has institutionalized in me. It's scary and a lot of times I didn't know where I was going to go. I would drive around a lot at night to clear my head. Between a shitty internship where I learned nothing and a potentially mis-matched job, I was kind of freaking out. This song would usually come on and I'd feel wholly calm.

There is a very melancholy and almost zen feel to this song. The drums have this serious weight to them while all the other instruments are fairly light, twinkling along at moments. Only the guitar can really go from the denseness of the drums and then help lighten things as well. The bizarre white noise that fades in over time adds this chaotic element that you just learn to accept, until it ends the song for you.

Notable Lyrics:

"Cool your aching head
Let the weight of the world
Drift away instead"

"These days I barely get by
I don't even try"

"You gotta drive all night
Just to feel like you're okay"

One last thing about this song is that it sets up really well for Paper Tiger, the next song on the album. Sea Change is an amazing album and I seriously recommend it.