Pedro The Lion, “Rapture”
Sufjan Stevens, “Casimir Pulaski Day”
“Rapture,” from 2002’s Control, was the first Pedro the Lion song I ever heard and remains my favorite, but it was only a year or two ago—when I put it on a mix CD for a friend—that I actually started listening to the lyrics, whose bluntness took me quite by surprise.
The revelation that I had been appreciating the song for years while completely oblivious to the hot and heavy adultery tale that is its central focus speaks, of course, to the potency of the music. The opening bars pound and grind with speaker-rattling presence: harsh, percussive guitars, an inside-out drumbeat, and a bassline that heaves and totters between notes. When the verse kicks in, it’s underlaid by thick, unrelenting synth that completely fills up the remaining space in the mix; the full-to-the-brim sound of it all makes it difficult to focus on anything else while the song is in your headphones. Read more…
