Week 80: “Mondlicht” by Radio Citizen

Did you have a secret place where you hid stuff as a kid?

Mine was the cold air return vent under my dresser. Shove the dresser aside, take the grate off the vent, reach down and to the left, and you’d find a hollow space where I kept my box of treasures. These treasures included baseball cards, European coins from the pre-Euro era, notes from secret admirers, and possibly a letter to the future archaeologists who would, I imagined, one day stumble across this bounty.

During my teen years, the hollow space in that vent became a place to hide things from my parents; I remember one panicked evening when they came home early, and my friends and I had to hide illicit liquor bottles in there.

It was nice to have a secret spot, wasn’t it? If you had one, take a second to remember how much fun it was to hide things away where nobody except you (and those lucky archaeologists of the future) would find them. And while you revisit the covert side of your childhood, listen to this delightfully sneaky-sounding song by Radio Citizen.

What makes this a beautiful song:

1. The percussion. Although the drums aren’t crazy loud, the drummer is all over the ride, the toms, and the rim. I like to visualize their drummer as this guy.

2. The bassline. A nice contrast to the craziness of the drums, the persistent upright bass grinds away regardless of what the other instruments are doing.

3. The clarinets. Just after 3 minutes in, a nice group of clarinets enters. Nothing fancy, just some neat little dissonances and cadences to bring the song to its resolution.

Recommended listening activity:

Checking your bedroom for loose floorboards.

Buy it here.