There’s rarely a time, I am not
thinking about the mix tape I made for someone in 1993. For some reason I tie a lot of importance in
those tracks. Maybe because it’s the
last time I felt truly alive on a daily basis.
I may have been despondent, lonely, depressed, and uncertain, but I was
still filled with desire and energy, and strangely, hope. In June of 2020, this lost mix weighed
heavily on my mind and I wrote about what may have been on that mix with a
piece named “It Isn’t Forever” (seen here).
Well, not that anyone cares, but I recently remembered another song that had to have been that mix. Released early in 1993, was an EP by the UK band Moose named “Liquid Make Up. The second song on the EP is named “There’s Place” and I used to listen to it on repeat endlessly. It was by far my favorite song on this new collection, which was strikingly different from their previous first four EPs, which were favorites amongst the multiple EPs that were coming out of the amazing UK indie scene in those days. Suddenly, the noisy, loose, and jagged sounds were now breezy light pop, sometimes including whistling (the shift was hard to adjust to on the debut LP …XYZ). It was a shock the system, but “There’s A Place” bridged that gap beautifully with its breezy guitar strum, wandering bass, and a smooth shuffling beat. It’s a song that evoked its title in sound. It could transport me to another “place.” It was a dream that I could not get enough of, and it made the new direction Moose had turned more palatable. It was also perfect for this particular mix, because it fit musically, but also its sense of re-generation (“when day is done / I’ll take my body home”) and acceptance is powerful and meaningful. Now that I’m older, it feels like more of a sad song, and though I still wish there is a “place,” a place of peace that I was so desperately searching for while recovering from brain surgery early this year, but I haven’t even felt at “home” in decades. “When all is gone / I’ll take my body home” takes on an almost cynical tone to me now. It’s still a masterpiece. I can still listen to it on repeat without ever tiring of it.
Moose "There's A PLace"
