CaPC Playlist: Deafheaven, Sigur Ros, The National, Brooke Waggoner, and A$AP Ferg

Brief thoughts on songs that are on CaPC writers’ playlists. You can check out this week’s playlist on Spotify here.

“Dream House” —Deafheaven

“Dream House” is nine minutes of sizzling colorful sparkle and robust compact guitars that drown out the almost inaudible screams of the vocalist. The poetic lyrics are as impenetrable as the guitars as they discuss the inseparable intermarriage of love and death.

Hindered by sober restlessness.
Submitting to the amber crutch.
The theme in my aching prose.
Fantasizing the sight of Manhattan; that pour of a bitter red being that escapes a thin frame.
The rebirth of mutual love.
The slipping on gloves to lay tenderly.

“I’m dying.”
– “Is it blissful?”
“It’s like a dream.”
– “I want to dream.”

“Isjaki” —Sigur Ros

A new song from their upcoming album Kveikur (Candlewick), “Isjaki” (Iceburg) is a departure from Sigur Ros’s typical atmospheric post-rock sound. One can feel the bitter coldness of the end of this relationship and that the fiery sparks only destroy further, not bringing restoration but only ashes.

English Translation:

You knew about me I knew about you
We always knew that this would end
You miss me I miss you
Lost both our legs
Now we lay forever
All icecold and blue
Shaking with fear, half dead from cold

Iceberg
You never say anything, you’re an iceberg
You are packed in ice
You are silent as the grave and hiding yourself behind
Iceberg
You never say anything, you’re an iceberg

You are packed in ice
You are silent as the grave and hiding yourself behind
You turn to me, I turn to you
Now light the peacefire, brimstone flames
It sparks from me,
It sparks by you
Sparks of us, burn up

Ashes Iceberg

“Sorrow” —The National

Ever wonder what sorrow consuming the depths of your soul sounds like? Look no further than this song. This is psalmic lamentation at its best but missing the key ingredient of man’s only salvation out of sorrow, God.

Sorrow found me when I was young,
Sorrow waited, sorrow won.
Sorrow that put me on the pills,
It’s in my honey it’s in my milk.
Don’t leave half a heart alone
On the water,
Cover me in rag and bones, sympathy.
Cause I don’t wanna get over you.
I don’t wanna get over you.

Sorrows my body on the waves
Sorrows a girl inside my cave
I live in a city sorrow built
It’s in my honey, it’s in my milk.
Don’t leave my half a heart alone,
On the water,
Cover me in rag and bones, sympathy.
Cause I don’t wanna get over you.
I don’t wanna get over you.

Don’t leave my half a heart alone,
On the water,
Cover me in rag and bones, sympathy.

Cause I don’t wanna get over you.

I don’t wanna get over you.

“Fresh Pair of Eyes” —Brooke Waggoner
According to Jewel Evans, “‘Fresh Pair of Eyes’ communicates a desire humans want but one we often do not have: the desire to be seen in a different kind of light. As Christians, we know that God is the only one fully capable of seeing us with fresh eyes. Waggoner’s personal recognition of this reality is gently conveyed within the profound lines of this seemingly simple song.”

‘Cause I want to be seen
With a fresh pair of eyes
The single white tree
In a black hood of disguise

I want, I want to be seen
With a fresh pair of eyes
The single, the single white tree
In a black hood of disguise

I miss God, I miss God
I miss God, I miss God

“Persian Wine” —A$AP Ferg

The song is framed with two prayers, opening with a quotation of Charles Wesley’s “Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild” and ending with the Lord’s Prayer. In between, A$AP Ferg reveals the struggle of living a hip-hop lifestyle and desiring to follow God.

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild
Look upon his little child
Pity my simplicity
Allow me to come to thee
Lord Jesus forgive me for my sins
Make sure that you take care of my family, my mom
God bless my dad
Look over me and my n*****s, Amen

A$AP murder clan, ride with the mob
Twinkle in the eye cuz you ridin with a star
Rebel all black and we dyin’ for the cause
Keep your hands down when you talkin’ to a boss
See Lou Banga ridin’ in a Porsche
Bet that n***** teeth look better than yours
All gold slugs and I don’t need to floss
Young Trap Lord, might die on a cross
Gold link chain swing down to my balls
Bout to rule the world, gettin’ signs from the Lord
Lord say “Ferg, **** you my boy
Wanna be on top? N*****, it’s your choice”
I don’t give a ****, I’mma ride with my n*****s
Right on the block, gettin’ high with my n*****s
High to the sky, puff lye with my n*****s
Drunk drive with my n*****s, I’mma die for my n*****s, uh

I’mma ride for my n*****s
Tote crime for my n*****s
Pull a 9 for my n*****s
Drunk drive with my n*****s
Get high with my n*****s, uh
Provide for my n*****s
Get high with my n*****s
Puff thai with my n*****s
To the sky with my n*****s
I’mma die for my n*****s (x2)

Get in your skin, like a dermatologist
Bunch of dirty n*****s who ain’t never been to colleges
**** your hypothesis, I be on that rider ****
Bang him over the head, I bet that **** silence him
Margiela stallion, ****** be Italian
God pray for me, I know my daddy smiling and
I’m gon make you proud, save me a cloud and when
I make it to heaven you’ll be by my side again
Bless all my violent friends, they don’t know right
All they know struggle pain all of their life
Washing down pain with that purple and Sprite
Murder death kill n***** **** your side
Uh, cause D Ferg got the **** toast
Uh, cause A$AP ****do the most
Uh, with the 9 in my 40 Belows
Ridin’ to the club with a snub nose

Our Father who art is in heaven, hallowed be thy name. A$AP. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory