The Perfect Song For the Situation: “Trees” by Pulp
It’s a sunny, cool, crisp fall day in Alabama, the morning after our first freeze of the season. Where our friends in the northeast have been peeping at leaves afire with the colors of fall for months, it’s only now beginning to look like fall where I live.
I’ve been dabbling with Radiohead’s In Rainbows and the Rolling Stones’ “Midnight Rambler.” I spent most of yesterday with Wilco and started there this morning. “Rambler” is a great song and I love Wilco and Radiohead, but none of this seemed to fit the day. I was just about to listen to This is Hardcore by Pulp just because I like that album and haven’t heard it in awhile when I was reminded of “Trees” from We Love Life. Perfect.
The string voice of the keyboards feel like spring, but Jarvis Cocker’s wonderful lyrics and delivery are all fall. This song about a dying relationship set against a backdrop of tree imagery is perfection. The chorus sounds like it’s ready to soar but pulls back and settles into a sonic glide.
The trees, those useless trees, produce the air that I am breathing
Yeah the trees, those useless trees, they never said that you were leaving
Go tell it to the trees
Go tell it to the trees
Go tell it to the trees
Go tell it to the trees
Filed under: Jarvis Cocker, Listening Room, Pulp
