Maybe Everything’s A Miracle

Bibio “Town & Country”

“Town & Country” is sung entirely in the second person – “you’re tired of working in the city, you fight for life…,” and so on – and it makes me wonder whether we’re meant to interpret it as Bibio singing to someone else, or to some version of himself. I tend to hear it more as the latter even if it’s not strictly autobiographical because it comes out sounding like a litany of complaints being used in a campaign to change your own mind and break bad habits.

The angst and negative vibes in the lyrics are at odds with the sound of the music, which feels extremely relaxed and lovely in this very ‘70s soft rock sort of way. Maybe it’s the fantasy of being somewhere else, and having an entirely different life. Or it could be like visiting some other place, and realizing how much better you feel, and that positive experience forcing you to reckon with problems you’ve put on the back burner for a long time because you’re too busy to take them seriously for long otherwise. I’ve never personally related to the sentiment of this song, but I know a lot of people who have struggled with this “gotta get out of the city” anxiety, and the way Bibio expresses it in this song sounds very authentic to me.

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