We made many trips to Niagara Falls when I was a kid. These trips were not because we were captivated by Niagara’s majesty, but because whenever extended family would visit from the other side of the Atlantic, Niagara was the first place they wanted to go.
For my part, I didn’t love these trips. Two hours in the back of a sweaty 1985 Hyundai Pony for the privilege of taking a boat so close to the falls that the mist soaked you to the bone? No thanks. I was more interested in visiting the legendary roller coaster that was nearby, and in which, unfortunately, my relatives inevitably had no interest.
Now that I’m much older, marginally wiser, and more drawn to natural wonders than roller coasters, I’ve developed a mild obsession with waterfalls. I’ve already written about them twice on this blog (in weeks 254 and 421) and we’ve taken our own kids to several waterfalls in our area.
But we’ve yet to take them to Niagara. Maybe we’re building up to it. Maybe I’m avoiding it. Maybe I want them to think of a waterfall as something magical that you find in a forest, rather than something surrounded by casinos and hotels and crowds.
Maybe I’ll think about it while listening to this song on repeat for a while.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. Molly McPhaul’s guitar loops infuse it with the seemingly opposite traits of momentum and repetition. It reminds me of the way I used to try to fix my eyes on one particular bit of water at Niagara Falls as it made its way from the top to the bottom.
2. Producer G Mills (from week 498) adds a delicious drum track, and all the vinyl character that makes his work almost tactile.
3. Although the percussion and guitar occupy most of the sonic space, there’s a keyboard in there too, glittering like light off a river.
Recommended listening activity:
Calling to mind a childhood memory for which there is no photo or video evidence.