242. Song No. 3,640: “From Debris,” Matt Pond PA
Several Arrows Later, 2005

This might be the most excited I’ve been to write about a song so far, and so much of why is wrapped up in the inarguably greatest way to make a second-chance discovery: anniversary tours.

I love that celebrating milestone albums and moments are widely accepted excuses for a tour, and there was this richly rewarding era in the 2010s where Matt Pond PA was embarking upon scads of anniversary tours for some of my all-time favorite albums seemingly year after year, Several Arrows Later among them. And while it was far from the first time I went to a concert that was more like a really big, interactive listening party, playing that album over and over and over again in anticipation of it was my first and the best introduction to how anniversary concerts are just spilling over with second-chance-song opportunities.

By the time I was crying and singing along to “From Debris” way up front at some cozy New York venue, those infinitely numbered album relistens had already reintroduced it to me, made me fall madly in love with it and let it etch every line directly onto my heart, all much to my benefit. Because by the time I heard this song live, it had become so intimately familiar and so completely mine that watching it come to life in concert felt so significant and beautiful and like witnessing something I love blossom into the best version of itself and greeting an old, beloved friend all at once.

If you’ve done yourself the favor of supporting Matt’s Patreon, you’ve read about how he’s done a lot of self-work these past couple years; if you’ve been eagerly champing at the bit through the seemingly endless slog until his new project’s debut album drops and gobbling up everything you can read or have already read about it, you’ve inevitably read something about how The Natural Lines is essentially what happened when Matt “went to therapy and figured out how to stop shouting at cars.” If Jonah Matranga is the kindest guy in the music biz, Matt Pond has never been far behind, and I really appreciate when my favorite music-makers seem to be all-around decent people who make the effort to continually be even better. I mean, yeah, it sucks when you find out you’ve been supporting and fangirling over an asshole who has no business singing about matters of the heart when they clearly haven’t gotten one to break in the first place; confirmation that they’re lovely humans looking for the best in others makes the quietly awed of optimism in songs like “From Debris” resonate a little more meaningfully and feel more revelatory.

And maybe a song ostensibly about a neighbor’s house on fire doesn’t, y’know, seem like it oughtta inspire warm fuzzies and emphatic declarations of love, but the epiphany and extended metaphor it both is and allows for are just as much of a treat as greeting this song like a comfortably familiar companion. There is so much truth about the human condition and human potential alike in “From Debris” that, I think, it can only come across as thoughtful medications rather than detached observations when it’s coming from someone who wants to understand the whole messy phenomenon of what makes us work and short-circuit with equal likelihood. Like, I think you have to want to extend grace and understanding and empathy and a willingness to be blown away by the optimism that a person unthinkingly inspires in the face of the up-close nightmare bringing their best and truest self to the surface:

Your feet upon the road, dear
Run between the houses
Your arms were filled with water
Without the hesitation
To know what you were doing
I think people can be perfect
When they do not think about it,
I think people can be perfect…

Falling in love with someone is a mutually transformative experience, uncovering all the things that differentiate one person from a crowd of anonymous, teeming billions and discovering the better versions of ourselves that a remarkable, irreplaceable soul deserves to be loved by. And maybe a neighborhood conflagration isn’t something that necessarily has a silver lining, but the realization that something wonderful is always waiting to rise from the ashes of rebirth, even if it’s seeing someone in a new, redefining light or finally seeing the potential for what can be rebuilt from the debris of yesterday.

As far as accounting for all the ways I was especially excited to tackle this song, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that I’m realizing how much easier it is to write about these songs I know well and’ve had unspooling miles of time to quantify how much I’ve loved them and why, rather than chiseling through the fresh awe of new discovery to figure out what about this new wonder finally hit me the right way at the right time. There have been so many songs that felt comfortably familiar for being a song I know well in this project’s sea of missed opportunities and as-of-yet undiscovered gems, but “From Debris” is their king. If this project’s highest function was to get me to listen to this track 32 more times and love every second of those roughly two and a half cumulative hours, that’s a peak I’m both happy and grateful to have crested.