Bode

Julianna Barwick "Bode"


Every six to eight months I wake up totally uninterested in guitars. I don't want to hear them strummed; I don't want to hear them belt out impressive solos. Shit, I don't really even want to hear someone even accompany a guitar. This lasts, at most, for a week or two or three. I woke up 4 days ago with this feeling. I have no interest in listening to guitar-based music. Which is unfortunate because I was planning on writing about VU's "Oh Sweet Nuthin'."

The last time this happened, I ended up stumbling upon Julianna Barwick's Florine EP, which contains this stunner. My most recent discovery is something entirely different, but it's going to require a thesis-level analysis before I'm ready to present it. Honestly. This post, which I'll throw up some time this weekend (maybe even tomorrow night), is probably going to be epic.

Aside from the one moment of textual interpretation needed (I think the lone lyric is "I'm going to take you on," a uniquely beautiful sentiment in its own right), there's basically nothing that needs to be said about this song. You should know, I guess, that all the sounds are generated by recording and/or processing Barwick's voice (the song works best on headphones, by the way). That's nice to know because it makes this epically beautiful song more humble. I'm actually afraid to talk about this song too much because it's like dissecting a joke or describing a flower: the more attention paid to it only ruins it. Just let it be said, then, that these are the prettiest (and I mean every syllable of that word) 5 minutes of music I've heard all year.