The Repudiated Immortals

Watching the film Upstream Color has brought me back to all this existential Elephant 6 malarkey. I saw of Montreal live in 2007 just as they began to descend from their climactic progression of three straight masterpieces. Not that Kevin Barnes past and present work hasn't been stimulating, but this was the first time I was able to see a band I loved in their prime. Dylan, Neil, Ray were all great, but that was circa '71. All it takes to make a great pop song these days is to create a catchy bass line combined with sexually provocative lyrics, for example this summer's jam, Robin Thick's "Blurred Lines". "The Repudiated Immortals" has a third aspect that being intellectually stimulating. I love being able to re-listen to a song over ten times and still not understand what is behind the blurry lines of each verse. What does Barnes mean when he blurts out?

"It's just the heaviness that comes with knowing you will never die."

Perhaps that is what the immortals felt upon creating us meager humans. Or perhaps it's knowing that in creating the song itself he has a created a ghost in itself and that ghost will live on forever. Whatever Barnes meant I'm sure it's now cliché.