Based solely on the number of listens, "Amplifiers" has got to be my favorite song from Atlas Sound's Parallax (out yesterday on 4AD). The repetitive guitar riff under intimately hypnotizing vocals is soothing and slightly wistful. Wistful, I think, because it's about leaving youth behind. The rest of the album is also worth a listen or ten.
I always wonder what the meaning and inspiration behind songs is, so I was delighted to read Bradford Cox's explanations of four songs off the album on the New York Times Style Magazine website (where the full album is streaming). Here's what he says about "Amplifiers":
The sound of winter in the practice space when all heat is sucked into the nonexistent, and isolated chords become skeletal and not cute. After cleaning the cables I recorded twin drum tracks and divided the rest between vocals (or vocal effects) and electric bass phrasing. Another numb ballad from old Marietta. I hate when the idea of youth becomes a spectral haunted thing because it ruins my ability to eat or sleep in regular cycles. I dream of Steve Reich and the Beach Boys in vertical striped shirts pressing phasers on Lunar Canyon.
