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Monday, August 29, 2022

Beach House - Myth




For better or worse, I have always enjoyed being dragged into a highly atmospheric haunting music. It is to my fortune that I have recently, very accidently, discovered, Beach House. It is to my great misfortunate; I am only discovering Beach House now.

Casual youtube rabbit hole diving revealed that it is possible that David Letterman was fond of Beach House back in the day, as they have many live performances on his late-night talk show on the tubes. Is this information worth anything? I do not know.

Although it happened fairly recently, I no longer recall which song I heard first by Beach House, I think it was “Space Song,” I like that one a lot. I am not even sure how many times I heard Beach House before I took note of their name and logged it to memory. Many of their videos I have seen are fan made, with footage of classic films, of which I had seen several, evidently there are still many classic French films for me to watch, something else to look forward too I suppose. One film I have seen which I recognized in these fan-made music videos, was “Paris Texas.” A quiet stated emotional film about a man trying to make things rights with his family after what could be considered a past that cannot be amended or repaired. It was a sad movie when I saw it, but the fan made video made me sink a little deeper into the film. The song choice Beach House “Myth,” really made a difference.

The emotion of the sound of “Myth” by Beach House sounds to me like a mix of happiness and sadness. As I often do when faced with cryptic lyrics and deep emotion, I look to other people’s interpretations, and Internet never sleeps, all voices can now be heard. Everything I read for “Myth” was highly personal; a good standard of success for a song is connectivity, and “Myth” clearly accomplishes that, but being open to a wide breadth of human experiences. The predictable experiences of the human condition are abound; lost loved ones, unrequited love, and other various versions of sad songs of love; that mixture of happy and sad working its magic. I like taking bigger steps back than that, and I think of “Myth” as something more versatile than that, and evidently, I am not the only one. A minority of opinions I read expressed the idea that “Myth” is about any sort of denial and acceptance.

Let’s see what Beach House has to say about it, they should know.

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/beach-house/myth

Songfacts.com has proved to be a reliable source of band interview information about songs, and for Beach House’s “Myth,” they report that guitarist Alex Scally explained the was is about “elusiveness.” Interesting. Elusiveness can manifest itself in almost infinite ways, which in turn explains why all the listening fans are able to project many personal experiences onto it. Elusive emotions can be very complicated, as every heart holds contradictory feelings simultaneously at times, and whether we are concerned with loved ones, or hopes and dreams, it can sometimes be difficult to pinpoint what we are exactly feeling.

“Help me to name it.”

However, I like to take big steps back and see the whole picture. Who says the elusiveness in question is not emotional, what if it is philosophical.

“Drifting in and out,
You see the road you're on.
It came rolling down your cheek,
You say just what you mean,
And in between,
It's never as it seems.”




You see the world for what it is, and you say just what you mean, but nothing seems quite right.

“If you built yourself a myth,
You'd know just what to give.
What comes after this?
Momentary bliss.
Consequence,
Of what you do to me.”


If you build yourself a mythology, you should know what you have to give up lying to yourself like that, and you can retreat for a comfortably while, but reality cannot be negotiated with, it simply is, and it makes no compromises. The consequences of denial are unavoidable.

“Help me to name it.”

See it works. This song could be taken as a naturalist world view. It is that versatile. I suspect the emotional aspect is more in line with intention of the art, but great art allows odd balls like me to get needlessly deep. Which is fun to do.

Until next month, keep on rocking in the free world.

- King of Braves

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