Video: M. Ward – “Engine 5” (ft. First Aid Kit)

Directed by Amber McCall. From supernatural thing, out now on Anti-.

Another song with First Aid Kit from M. Ward. I wonder if Zooey Deschanel stopped taking his calls. Remember when Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein roasted She & Him for being “blatantly uncool” and kitschy?

But kitsch — or what would have formerly been called kitsch — is cool and is part of the broader tapestry of music without being marginalized or made diminutive. So what has changed? For one, I think the sheer amount of references available to us at any given time is so abundant that it’s conflated — perhaps even negated — the concept of value. The notion of authenticity is practically obsolete, and the idea of realness is just another categorical index, devoid of meaning. When real is gone, then there is no longer a litmus test for that which deviates from it. It’s all real because it’s all “real.” We mined all the gold, and now we’re mining the gilded.

I wonder what M. Ward thought of that. Probably not much. She & Him released five more albums after that.

“Engine 5” doesn’t sound kitschy. But the video with its old school 8-bit graphics vibe might be.

Video: M. Ward – “too young to die” (feat. First Aid Kit)

Directed by Holly Andres. From supernatural thing, out now on Anti-.

M. Ward is such a gentle songwriter. His songs are like a long hug from an old friend. Like a campfire on a chilly evening. I don’t follow him closely but every time he pops up on my radar I wonder why I don’t spend more time with him. But then another year or two or three goes by and he pops up again and I feel bad for not making more of an effort.

It would be easy to blame covid for not seeing much of my friends. But I was a hermit before the pandemic. And time is a motherfucker. You blink your eyes and you’re fifty and all your friends are scattered across the country and the globe. That’s something old guys say, I know, but it’s true. Wait, weren’t we talking about M. Ward? Sorry.

I first heard that from an old guy:
“I’m too young to die” –
Now it’s spray-painted on the half-pipe:
“Too young to die.”

And how great is First Aid Kit? Ward recognizes the power and beauty of sibling harmonies. He says, “It was a great thrill to go to Stockholm and record a few songs there. The sound from blood-related harmony singers is impossible to get any other way – The Everly Brothers, The Delmores, The Louvins, The Carters, The Söderbergs – all have the same kind of feeling in their vocals.”

It’s cool that he recorded with them in person. The video was clearly shot separately, but that reinforces the album’s idea of “picking up transmissions in a code from a host of foreign satellites.”

Anyway, we should all try to let our friends know we miss them and we should hang out more often.