September 21, 2012

Paul Westerberg - "My Road Now"

The growling, disheveled, king of the underdogs Paul Westerberg begins "My Road Now," a new song that sprung up around every corner of the internet today, with typical Replacements gravitas: "...fuck me." The lead-in of a failed take perfectly sets up what might be one of Westerberg's most appealing songs in years. Over a simple chord progression on the piano, Westerberg weaves a tale of a partnership gone sour with his infamous cigarrette and booze-scorched vocals and humor-dusted misery: "This is my road now, and you can hit it baby. / I don't care where you go. / This is my road now, and you can hit it honey. / Hit it like I owed you a whole lot of money." The best line though may be this heartstring-tugging imagery in the second verse: "You won't know where the money went. / You ain't broke, but you're badly bent." There's no real hopeful lyrical message in this recession-era ballad. Instead its the light hum of strings and the disarmingly potent melody that lift the spirits, proving strong enough to get stuck in this listener's head after just a single go-around. Time, it seems, hasn't diminished this Mats' touch one bit.

Paul Westerberg - "My Road Now"

Paul Westerberg

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