My Top 1000 Songs #816: Pictures Of Success

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

An early track from Rilo Kiley, from their 2001 debut LP Take Offs And Landings. While I'm often partial to the band's poppier, more upbeat tracks (see, e.g., the previously-noted "Portions For Foxes" and "Spectacular Views"), "Pictures Of Success" is cut from an entirely different cloth. It's a quiet, slow-burning ballad, with some lovely intertwining finger-picked guitars, that takes its own sweet time digging in its claws--a multi-part suite that stretches nearly 7 minutes, each component individually lovely, but joined together into something majestic. 

Jenny Lewis offers some penetrating observations and unforgettable turns-of-phrase, little snippets of dark philosophy that I've never shaken.

"I've had it with you, and Mexico can fucking wait. And all of those French films about trains. 'Cuz I'm not scared, but I'd like some extra spare time."

Much of the song strikes me as simultaneously beguiling and fatalistic, struck through with flashes of hope. Worth a long, quiet listen to draw your own conclusions.

Live 2003: