The Russian Futurists’ “Paul Simon”

There are several broad categories that, for me, make a good song great.

Some can be dark and brooding, but with introspective or probing lyrics and a sound to match. Some can be bright and happy, with witty writing and a bouncy melody. Others just need to have a catchy trumpet fanfare (I’m a sucker for the trumpet fanfare). And then, some great songs, while they have lyrics that don’t exactly “speak to me,” compensate with a highly energetic and upbeat melody.

“Paul Simon” by The Russian Futurists is one of those songs.

There’s this one word, it’s called comfort
It’s the strangest, most dangerous place I could hide
It’s a wonder this cold comfort
Hasn’t hollowed and swallowed you and I from inside

You’re my first pint, on the worst nights
My gut knots up, my heart bursts like a piñata pop
This has gotta stop, watch the water drop from clouds
It sure rains a lot

And I’ve felt how a heart melts down
I’m so burnt out, I’m a shell now
It’s the worst of lows, it’s the first to go
It’s the last to come back when the sun melts the snow

What I’m giving, you is taking
Lots of lying and some faking
Have I gone too far? Am I too far gone?
I’ve been up all night and fight to keep out the dawn

And we’ve felt how our hearts melt down
We’re so burnt out, we’re a shell now
It’s the worst of lows, it’s the first to go
It’s the last to come back when the sun melts the snow

I was searching my brain for ways to portray the utter exuberance of The Russian Futurists, but found that several music magazines had already expressed it better than I could.

Pitchfork:

And wow, it really does sound like heart-bursting enthusiasm, in that way The Flaming Lips are always reaching for but have never nailed so casually. I imagine they’d be as impressed as anyone to hear that a song can seem quite this peppy (and quite this heartbroken) without turning precious or cloying…

And, perhaps most touchingly, BBC Collective:

… lovely, summery pop…

I like it when my music reflects my perspective on life, and “lovely” and “summery” are definitely apt terms.