A Waltz of Mortals
Without thinking twice, I would place Bold of the Bear's hauntingly beautiful song "May Again" on my all-time Top 5 SongLadder list. It is about as close to perfect as indie music can get, moving through hazy lyrics with reverberant male/female vocal harmonies, and singing of relationships, seasons, and cosmology. The 3/4 time makes "May Again" feel as if The Beatle's dreamy anthem "Because" had been transmogrified into a waltz and given a fresh coat of poetry. Bold of the Bear hails from the tiny resort town of Steamboat Springs, CO, a town that produces a ridiculously high level of talent per capita. It's a pleasure to listen to BotB's song at the end of April, with May right around the corner. The song offers a delicious reverence of the warm green summertime in a way that reminds me of the first times I ever heard The Fleet Foxes...and just wanted to go outside with my friends, lie under a tree, and bask in the sheer delights of being an animal. A quick internet search suggests that the Bold of the Bear project has just started (I could only find two other tracks online), but I would not be surprised if I start seeing them on concert posters in a couple of years. They have the touch of the genius about them.