First Round Matchup: JEFF BUCKLEY vs BJORK

(2) Jeff Buckley, "Hallelujah"

This is one of two Buckley numbers in the tournament this year (This Mortal Coil covers Tim Buckley, Jeff’s father; and Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteaus/TMC would go on to be friends with and collaborate with Jeff). I remember in the mid-90s hearing about this dude Jeff Buckley, and I bought his Live at Sin-E EP that didn't connect with me then since I probably still only had eyes for Erasure, and it took a few years to discover this, his most famous recording, and only then did I get it. Haven't heard it yet? Lose yourself here in his unearthly voice and the simple reverb. No, it’s not Jeff’s song (it’s Leonard Cohen’s, as you probably already know if you know your way around sad songs: here's the original for comparison, which seems only proper to consider, since you're probably already thinking of it or one of its apparently over 300 cover versions, of which besides this I've always been partial to Cale's, which apparently inspired Buckley's). But, like all versions that eclipse the original, the song seems like it was written for Buckley. That he drowned at 30—swimming in the Mississippi fully clothed—makes the story that much sadder. Maybe it's better just to get out of the way. Just let that last minute or so of the song open you.

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(15) Bjork, "Unravel"

“Unravel” is a relatively simple song, best explained by quoting its one repeated verse: “while you are away / my heart comes undone / slowly unravels / in a ball of yarn / the devil collects it / with a grin / our love / in a ball of yarn / he'll never return it / so when you come back / we'll have to make new love.” So there’s that: it’s beautiful, sweet, you’re gone, I miss you, I fall apart, I sing a missing song, and you come back, and we have to make something new in its place. The song’s the yarn. Kickass! But as in many Bjork songs the lyrics are weirder at a second glance: why does the devil collect it with a grin? or at all? your heart? our love? And when you come back are you the same? Am I the same? Is our love the same? Is our new love that we must now make from scratch again the same? Why then does the verse repeat only once and then not again? I start to think, listening to the song once—and then again—that it’s like a Mobius strip, doubling back on itself, a twisted figure with only one side. The repeated swelling and repeating—is it almost like a round?—of the lyrics becomes stranger and stranger the more I listen. Still, it's a sadness that's not otherwise represented here: the sweet and winding pain of the beloved being away, but knowing s/he'll be back, but knowing  how you and s/he and your love are changed by the absence, even if not catastrophically. In a sadness bracket this song no doubt stands out for its lack of cancer, permanent heartbreak, suicide, whining, goth posturing, existential dread, and potentially inclusive na na na nas. Instead it’s a little song of heartbreak and heartmake, rinse, repeat, rinse, rinse, repeat. We don’t think it’s any less sad if the sadness it springs out of is temporary.

Also, the video's beautiful if maybe reductively literal. It's funny to watch bands figure out what a video can do. That may (unfairly, maybe) keep this game closer than expected and give Bjork a shot at the upset.

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Which is sadder? Vote by 9am 3/11

Unravel

Hallelujah

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