some music is special

Who can explain why some music just says something to your soul? Lately I've been enjoying the music of an obscure Australian band, the Middle East. I saw them live and have a dozen of their songs. Here's the lyrics of one of the best, "Blood" (about family):

Older brother, restless soul, lie down

Lie for a while with your ear against the earth

You'll hear your sister sleep talking

Say "your hair is long but not long enough

to reach home to me

but your beard someday might be"

And she'll wake up in a cold sweat on the floor

Next to a family portrait drawn when you were four

And beside a jar of two cent coins that are no good no more

She'll lay it aside ...

Older father, weary soul, you'll drive

Back to the home you've made on the mountainside

With that ugly terrible thing

Those papers for divorce and a lonely ring

Sit on your porch

And pluck your strings

You'll find somebody you can blame

You'll follow the creek that runs into the sea

And you'll find the peace of the Lord

Grandfather, gentle soul, you'll fly

Over your life once more before you die

Since our grandma passed away

You've waited for forever and a day

Just to die

And someday soon you'll die

It was the only woman you ever loved

That got burnt by the sun too often when she was young

And the cancer spread and it ran into her body and her blood

And there's nothing you can do about it now.

You can listen to the song on the Middle East Myspace page, or on the Triple J Unearthed page.