This Year: 2014

"This Year" is a series of weekly posts, each about one song from one year of my life. See the introduction for more.

I'm back to the old well again: another song of heartbreak and desolation. It's the kind of song I love best, I think.

And this is a great one, from a fine songwriter who also has a lovely voice just right for her material, especially this song: breathy and quiet, already devastated.

For 2014, I want to tell you about Let Me Go by Kate Tucker and the Sons of Sweden.

It’s my fault
It’s your fault
If you don’t give a damn
Forget about it

It's a break-up song; it starts quietly. If you know anything about break-ups, you understand it won't stay quiet.

There's a chugging drum line that starts in right after the first verse. I want to say it picks up speed, a bit at a time, as the song goes on, but I may be mishearing power and volume for speed. This is a song that gets bigger and bigger, more and more demanding, verse by chorus by verse, as Tucker runs through this break-up moment.

It's not even a strident break-up song: Tucker isn't complaining or listing faults, just talking about this moment and how everything is broken and irreparable.

And it doesn't get that loud: just loud enough. Just clear enough. Just, precisely, to be clear how entirely over it all is, right at this moment.

Find a fire to light
Go set your flares off in the night
I’ll be miles out of sight
Cause you just let me go like that

And it's all done in three-and-a-half minutes, that perfect pop-song length.

You go you go
You go on down
You dream you dream
You dream out loud
You eat your heart out
Everytime