When listening to this song I’m instantly torn between feeling joyful and melancholic. The laidback singing and acoustic guitar are comforting and the the melody simply carries you away. The song is structured beautifully. Twice in the song, a wailing electric guitar lifts you up and gently puts you back down.

But the song also has a sadness to it. It tells the story of the singer of the Shins, feeling powerless. Wanting to move on from a phase in his life he’s not happy with. No longer relating to the people he’s hanging out with. The gnawing feeling there’s somewhere else he had to be, there’s something else he should be doing.

As if meant to be, this song about wanting more from life, turned out to be his ticket out of the Southwest. The song got the Shins a deal with a record label, who helped released their first album, Oh, Inverted World. The 2001 indie album was well-received and has just celebrated it’s 20 year anniversary. A must listen to all who haven’t heard it yet.