18. Song No. 129: “Albatross,” The Besnard Lakes
The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night, 2010

This is another one that just makes me go “Oooohhhh, I love this song” every time we cross paths.

But I don’t always know how to express what it is I love about a song. There’s so much I adore about this one–the fuzz of the guitars, the richness of the vocals, the lush build of the music, the overall moodiness of a rare lyrical instance of post-rock–but it’s more than the sum of its parts.

This isn’t a song that reminds me of a person. This isn’t a song that’s attached to a particular memory. It’s not even a song that exemplifies a certain place or time. Some songs are easy to love just for themselves rather than their context or happenstance, and the universally applicable near-coda “And I have to admit / Things got weird for a bit” invokes the feeling of so many nameless ends and flailing transitions that are destined to scrabble for purchase for a while that it’s just one of those songs that feels right at so many times and is even easier to love for it.