Review Summary:
so this is when we walked away.
There's a longing to leave. It exists in everyone. Sometimes we need to get out; we need to go, we need to fly and see what else there is. We need to head north, to head towards whatever's ahead. Humans aren't built for stagnation, we started as nomads and hunters and gatherers. We started as searchers and scouts, looking for places to settle if only for a short time before heading to wherever's next. And whatever next could kill us or we could make a paradise out of the tiniest leaves and coin. Across those roads and fields of corn and grassroots we could find God or we could find a quiet motel room to wait for the next train out – out of the town we find, the town we resent after an overlong dwelling. So we'll head forward, always heading forward.
Until we come home.
"Dark Bird is Home" is the way back. It's the north star in the distance and the soothing wind that says "go." It's the last ride out of town on the back of some stranger's pickup truck. It's the terrifying pursuit of comfort. It's the call, the call to head home. It's when your loved ones say your name in their prayers, and hold a picture dear to their heart, wishing for you to swing open the front door. To lay your bags to rest, and embrace left-behind family and friends. To settle – God, to rest.
Only to leave again.
For this album isn't just about coming home, it's about the bittersweet biting thought of when it's time to go again. Knowing nothing ever lasts forever, because forever is too damn long. Because eventually your feet start to ache from neglect and your brain starts to hiss from tired memories. You can hear it in the lo-fi beginnings of "Fields of Our Home" and the lush instrumentation of "Sagres" and the finality of album closer and title track "Dark Bird is Home", the intentions are true: We never meant to harm, only to help. But in the end we all have to be selfish. We all have to help ourselves. We all have to say goodbye. Until the day this dark bird comes home once more.
"I thought that this would last for a million years, but now I need to go."
And so we go, and it all moves forward.
