42. Pinegrove - “Aphasia”

I grew up on Country music, which is a rarity for someone raised in California, but not so much for someone raised in Orange County – a pocket of red within a sea of blue that for some reason takes a perverse pride in identifying with the South while at the same time considering themselves far superior to it. However, I digress.

The reason I bring this up is to say that I have a sort of conditioned affinity toward elements of Southern Rock. I can’t help it. I was inundated with it from birth until my early teens when I got my first portable CD player and was finally able to make my gasping escape into the wider world of music.

As a result, Pinegrove speaks to my soul. They wed together the Country music of my youth, the emo-tinged alternative rock of my early teens, and the modern Indie of my late teens and young adulthood in perfect harmony. It’s almost as if somebody probed the musical experiences of my life and then created at band in its likeness. I love it. It’s truly beautiful stuff to witness.

Anyway, this song in particular addresses a universal theme that I think all of us can relate to. Everybody has been in a situation where we regret our words, or even our lack of words, especially at the moment when the right words are needed most. Its a damning feeling. One that can cascade into hours of regret and self-inflicted abuse. If we’re lucky we make it past the setback, the relationship grows stronger, and we become better communicators in the process. If we’re not so lucky, then we fall into a cycle of negativity or the relationship simply falls to pieces never again to reform.