My Top 1000 Songs #798: Burial Art

One of the newest songs to make the list, with the usual caveat that, in fairness, it should take a few years before one can honestly consider a song to be an all-time favorite--but The Connells' "Burial Art" was a rare track that I've played incessantly for the past few years and still love (and, likewise, the rare example of a band with a deep catalog who managed to interest me in their new music decades into their career).

The North Carolina jangle pop act were one of my absolute favorite bands from the 80s and 90s, a huge part of my college radio days. After a 20-year studio sabbatical, they released the surprisingly solid Steadman's Wake in 2021. And while there were more immediate tunes on the record, it was the understated "Burial Art" that captured my attention, an emotional gut-punch that seemed to capture the malaise of Covid-era lockdowns (even though the song had been in the band's live repertoire for several years). 

In contrast with the other Covid-adjacent track on the list (Bo Burnham's "That Funny Feeling"--from his explicitly lockdown-specific Inside film--as deliciously interpreted by Phoebe Bridgers), "Burial Art" has nothing to do with that particular moment in time. Still, something in the desperate, vulnerable vocals of band namesake and guitarist Mike Connell--who took a rare lead vocal turn in place of usual frontman Doug MacMillan--and the dark lyrics just felt thoroughly of the moment when the album landed. "You like burial art? Me too. You've been been falling apart? Me too."

I don't even know what "burial art" means. But for me, the track, with its glorious throwback jangle energizing Connell's gentle hymn, perfectly encapsulated the way I'd been feeling throughout the prior year.

Live 2018:

And in 2022: