10. Sun Kil Moon "I Watched The Film The Song Remains The Same"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy8cklFZ3sA&feature=kp It might be too soon for this song to be on any list of repute. After all, the album it comes from the masterful rumination on death that is "Benji" just released last month. Regardless of how recent it is though, "I Watched the Film the Song Remains the Same" is a perfect example of what the long track format can become in the right hands. Sun Kil Moon mastermind Mark Kozelek delivers the entire track over a sparse bed of acoustic guitars, meaning that we pretty much spend 10 and a half minutes in complete intimacy with the singer/songwriter. And frankly, "intimate" is probably the best word to described "I Watched the Film the Song Remains the Same;" a long, meandering, stream-of-consciousness confessional that uses a Led Zeppelin concert film as a springboard for more personal discussions. The title of the track may seem clumsy and unwieldy, and the idea of listening to a song written about watching another band's famous concert movie doesn't sound promising anyway, but Kozelek imbues the proceedings with such unbridled, open-book emotion that the tune hits like a punch to the gut. In actuality, the song is built around two viewings of the titular Led Zeppelin film the first in childhood and the second over 30 years later and begs one central question: if a person takes in a piece of art as an adult and is still moved by all the same elements as he was as a kid, has he really changed at all? We won't spoil the answer, but suffice to say that no song this year has entranced more.
Craig Manning
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Craig is a Chicago-based freelance writer who like to talk incessantly about music on AbsolutePunk.net. He also does writing for marketing companies to "pay the bills," but his true passion lies with the pop culture sphere.
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