q) What’s a „Lifer“?
a) Something that goes into your playlist and never leaves it. Even if it’s years between listens, it’s something that never leaves you.
q) what is this new Lifer you found, and how did you find it?
a) the song is „Swap Places“, the final track from The Apartments LP No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal. I was on Amazon looking for an old Bathers CD second hand, and No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal popped up in the recommendations. It has fantastic cover art. It would have been foolish not to check out the music.
q) What got you about the music?
a) I mislike the word „authenticity“ but in this case, I’ll make an exception. Something about the vocal reminded me of The Go Betweens (whose Streets of Your Town is another Lifer of mine). After a couple of listens I looked up the band on Wikipedia and whaddya know – the guy used to be in The Go Betweens. Must be the accent made me think of it. What really got me, as well as the authenticity, was the lyrics. The situation they describe is unbearably sad and obviously not fictitious. Which dispenses with the need for metaphor or figurative language.
If I could do your dying for you
If I could do your dying for you
You know I’d swap places in a New York minute
The wooden box would have me in it