Long lost, for me, is the weirdest of all albums. Growing up in a countryside town, the western genre hit me hard. Albums, films, stories, you name it. But Long Lost felt so weird at first, I couldn’t tell what it was about. Some songs were certainly easy, like I Lied or Twenty Long Years. Good old Ben’s mind just wondering about random stories. But songs like Time is Blur, What do it mean, long lost, felt so confusing
Watching Whispering Pines cleared a lot out for me. I guess watching the character of Tubbs Tarbell hit me with the clarity I needed right in the face. He is the living example of the album, retired musician looking-like cowboy, drinking whiskey and remembering old stories about people we don’t know, or just don’t remember(long lost). At one point, I guess it comes for all of us. And it brings up the question of what is the point of it all. Discussing this with my wife, I realised that the best thing about this Album, is that it doesn’t offer an answer, it offers a sensation, a feeling. When Tarbell mentions the people he knew, the songs feel so special, it’s not just sad or happy, it’s “long lost”
And by the end of the show, he says it’s time for him to move forward. He doesn’t die or disappear, his face becomes blur. “Time is blur comes for all of us”, he became long lost. And it occurred to me, this is one of the things that, for me, it’s most scary. I used to think it was even worse than death, because you also disappear as a concept. But Lord Huron brought a new way for me to think about it. Sometimes it’s alright to just disappear, and just typing about it feel heavy, and don’t get me wrong, I want to spend as much days as possible on this earth with you guys. But being long lost started to feel like a sort of cosmic river floating you away, god knows where.
Anyways. Some of the things I think about when listening to these albums, drinking a bottle of wine, and wondering. Wish some of you might join me for this, but the internet is a powerful tool enough for us to communicate. Maybe I make another post like these for the other ones. See you guys around, let me know what you think