10 Reasons To Love 1 Song- Ep A

The 'Ten Reasons To Love One Song' Series.

Episode A- 'The Butcher' by Matt Pond PA

1) The rumbling sweep at the beginning to let you know something is going down.
2) The introduction before the vocals, each furious jab of the cello paradoxically drawing the listener closer.
3) The way the strings stalk the start of each verse to sketch out the melody.
4) The duh-dunk of the bass, the bassline itself providing absolutely no more than required amongst the melody lines.
5) The foilage that the drums hide behind for the opening forty seconds, only to spring out as the strings retreat to drive the rest of the song with a metronomically passionate 1-2-1-1-2 beat on the bass drum, snare and a smidgeon of cymbals.
6) That steady, dead basic guitar chord progression strummed up and down, up and down, up and down throughout the whole song. Some things constantly change, some things stay the same.
7) The completely unflashy yet melodically essential guitar bits in the middle and near the end.
8) The fact that the song doesn't even have definable verse, chorus and middle parts, just repeated sections. I mean, there's no repeated vocal hook in the second section (what you would think is the chorus), just the musical equivalent of a Moebius strip.
9) The delicate urgency in the singer's voice, tugging the string of words along the spine of the instruments. It succeeds even without knowledge of the English language, his phrasing leaving you breathless at the end of almost every line.
10) The oblique story contained within these words, something about a butcher and a lover and intrigue that I cannot fathom even after at least a hundred listens. Can you?

Episode A [the full 4:15 version, the first upload I put up cuts off after a minute!]
Official Site
Myspizzle
Quick UK link to buy the excellent album where this song resides.