Because I Don’t Want To Be Alone

Toro Y Moi “Still Sound”

I’ve come to the conclusion that the more I try to understand my response to Toro Y Moi’s second album Underneath the Pine, the less I get it. I have found that my natural inclination is to zone out during large portions of the record, and I’ve found that it’s not a bad thing. It may in fact be the point. My attention doesn’t stray because I’m bored and disengaged — if anything, I find that I’m more connected to this record when I’m not focused on it, when the sound and beat become part of my surroundings and the mood of the music becomes indistinguishable from my actual emotional state.

Not all of the album is straight-up musical wallpaper. A lot of the reason why the record works is because it does periodically snap together into tighter, more pop-oriented forms. “Still Sound” is my personal favorite, and I think it’s the most impressive piece of music Toro Y Moi has produced to date. There’s a touch of Arthur Russell in this one, not just in the tonality, but in the way the arrangement keeps shifting without seeming restless. (I was listening to my favorite Russell piece “Tell You (Today)” recently and was totally in awe of how drastically it shifts while seeming totally intuitive from moment to moment, I couldn’t fathom how it was composed.) “Still Sound” has the deepest groove and the most coherent emotion on the record, though I’d be hard-pressed to describe exactly what it is. I just recognize the feeling every time I hear it, and am always pleased to his this sound that always reminds me of little bubbles rising up in a glass of soda water.

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