Holocene

Holocene

Rosa Pyo

Image courtesy of Genius

It’s a bit bold of a statement to say that Holocene is a confusing song. Especially since there is such a flow to the song, but I guess that‰’s the point, you don‰’t know of this great illusion. There is a constant, threading of the strumming of two guitars to create the illusion of having a continuous sound, almost an infinite loop as one instruments ends as another quietly begins. Much like our mortality from parent to child and so forth. It‰’s never ending bitter cycle. One of the greatest magic tricks of Justin Vernon, the songwriter and frontman of Bon Iver.

It‰’s a pleasant contradiction you are unaware of as the roles of the big brass instruments have a demure sounding, almost mimicking the sound of snow. The instruments ebbs and flows, much like the ocean, as they are added in and out to create a response. The response of his insignificance and leading up to this revelation.

Even though the words are just a caress over a whisper, there is a feeling. This undeniable feeling of being home but not truly belonging. Like coming home to you old bed, but having your feet hang out a little bit. Seeing an old boyfriend or girlfriend and feeling a wave of bittersweet nostalgia. Sometimes good music doesn‰’t just have to be just coherent lyrics that typically make sense.

Vernon‰’s lyrics talk of conversations we have never been a part of, places we have never been, and things we have never heard, yet the song is so universal. The imagery of being on the highway and looking for miles and miles is common place to our ordinary nuances of life. Its not wild during these slight moments of introspection that we understand how meaningless everything can be. In psychology the human ego constantly screams into the void “I AM IMPORTANT!‰” with a shallow mask of an id. It‰’s human instinct. Basic biology. However, Vernon reminds these human instincts to shove it, we are “not magnificent.‰Û

The title of the song, Holocene, is the current geological epoch. It contains our entire being. So, although we may feel we are encapsulating gentle giants with an everlasting change upon the universe, we are nothing. We are a mere freckle on the face of time. The truth of our significance is it is utterly insignificant and it is cruel and bitter but the truth is what it is. We can do what we want to do with this nihilism. We can make the best of it or the worst of it. We have choice and I hope you make the best of it.

In a world of climate change and Trump and an impending atomic war that may or may not happen, whether annihilation occurs now or later, life is always there to come again. And if not, all is well.