2000 : 09 "Strayed" by ((smog))

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Despite its silly tittle, (smog)'s 2000's release Dongs of Sevotion is a haunting collection of deeply intimate and disturbing songs. (Perhaps he was trying to say that despite attempting devotion, he is just too deeply mixed up to pull it off.) Focusing on the topics of sex and death, the album gives me the feeling of listening to a confession at a death bed. My heart aches and pangs along with the sparse pumping rhythms that propel us along. Unfortunately, the sheer magnetism of this album is the journey (my double-feature set would package this with Lou Reed's magnificent Berlin), making it nearly impossible for me to choose a representative song. Yet, I have decided to take it easy on any listener who has not heard this album and offer up the slow, Velvet-Underground-inspired groove of "Strayed". Perhaps the most beautiful and least heavy song included, this is the closest we will ever get to an apology. The man that many have referred to as a misogynist and a creep is not without his faults here, but I am almost ready to forgive him. "I have been an alley cat and a bumble bee to your panther and your wasp," he states, accepting his faults, but not leaving her without the responsibility of being a predator herself. He has recognized his mistakes and the path that he has strayed down, the one that has led him to becoming one of "those men", the lonely desperate kind with pin-ups on their wall. Don't worry Bill, if I can't forgive you, at least I understand. —E. P. Johnson Listen: ((smog)) >> "Strayed"