78. The Radio Dept. – “This Thing Was Bound To Happen”
During the heyday of my weed smoking days I would often escape (fall? seep? sink?) into a game called Audiosurf. It was the ideal game for stoners, because as soon as it was synced to your iTunes library you could begin racing down a rainbow road, avoiding obstacles and hitting boosts, as the colorful track pulsed and twisted through space to the rhythm and for the duration of whatever song you had chosen to play. It was a beautifully simple idea, and a soothing yet satisfying way to spend (waste away?) hours of the day (or often the very late hours of the night). I mean, even now as I sit here writing about it I can’t help but miss those blissful days of nothingness. However, having served their purpose and intersecting with my life at the perfect time and place, those days are now gone and relegated to live on only within the cozy and hazy halls of memory.
Anyway, long story long, this song reminds me of the perfect Audiosurf soundscape. Every time I hear it I can’t help but see the image of that rainbow road floating through space. It’s a song that oozes peace, like some sort of lo-fi salve or warm blanket of reverb, it swaddles and exfoliates the soul, massaging all of the rough hewn thoughts and sending the mind into a realm of sweetsweet tranquility.
Now I know this track is an ironic jab at political apathy, or rather a play on the high-minded and nihilistic fatalism that often infects jaded academics whenever they speak of politics or society in general (guilty as charged). However, despite my best efforts, every time I hear this jam I can’t help but come back to that hazy rainbow road floating through space – which I suppose is appropriate, given that that the rainbow road this track conjures to mind has always functioned as a form of escape for me. In a way I suppose that makes this track all the more monumental and meta, because not only is it a song about high-minded escape – it’s a song that reminds me of my high mind’s escape. WOAH! (see what I did there?) Anyway, this jam is a joy to meander through, so go ahead get lost within its sweetsweet ether of its soundscape.
