The holiday time and year end is a time for spending with family and friends, being bombarded by far to much holiday music and advertisements for stuff you probably don’t need and overindulgence. But its also a time for reflection, both of your self and the world around you. Listening to Mandolin Orange‘s track of their upcoming release can help with a multitude of those things. First and foremost a reprieve from all those “Dominick the Donkey” hee-haws and “buy this, buy that” assaults, but also the song is a year end
Marlin describes the song to Garden & Gun, “I wrote this song to my Dad. I think we all try to hide our emotional pain or frustration sometimes, for the benefit of the ones around us.” He sings “loss has no end, its binds to our connection, we don’t speak of it, we don’t even try”. The upsweeping of the holidays and how we are supposed to act can further perpetuate that feeling in some ways. Rather than take to finding solutions and support we can dilute it with the picture perfect Norman Rockwell painting of the roaring hearth and smiling faces. So, while most folks are Jingling the Bells and imparting a Silent Night, I think songs like ‘Golden Embers’ are the solemn and melancholy truth we should be listening to this holiday season. Its the difficult discussions that make us stronger, and during these times and coping through loss, we all could use a little bit of that strength.
There is beauty and fortitude in the devastation of loss that can be found. Its the light, the ones being cast from those golden embers, that give us hope for the future. And the future is bright with a new record from the band forthcoming in February. Pre-order it here.