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CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND
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"Be Good" by Black Prairie VS. "White Crosses" by Against Me!
I am writing this with no preconceived notion of the outcome. I'm just going to keep writing until I can convince myself that one of these songs is better than the other.
The case for "White Crosses" is probably easier to make, because I feel like I have a strong connection with Against Me! and their entire catalog. I can relate to the general themes of their work, not in a specific sense (gender dysphoria), but in a more general sense (sometimes I too don't feel comfortable in my own skin!). Laura Jane Grace sings with a passion because her songs speak directly about her life experience. Who among us hasn't been so fucking fed up with life that we want to smash some shit? I know I have felt that.
I don't think Black Prairie functions in the same way. I don't think they are trying to relate to the listener personally. This isn't a bad thing, and sometimes it's actually refreshing. They sing songs of pirates and of magic and of mystery. There is a sense of drama in their songs, but not necessarily drama born out of personal experience. It's the difference between reading fiction and nonfiction.
Except that I think "Be Good" might be an exception here to Black Prairie's general rule. It is a personal song. It speaks in clichés—lyrics like "You ask me what am I running from / When I’m looking at myself / looking at you / I see someone brand new," for instance—but such mopey sentiments are clichés for a reason. It's because the feelings they evoke are universal. "Be Good" is a song about finding The One, and when I hear it, I think of my One, and I feel wonderful.
You can make a distinction between these two musical styles for sure. Both feature guitar, bass, drums, and vocals, but that might be all they have in common from a practical standpoint. "White Crosses" has a driving rhythm, snare hits on every quarter note, a guitar riff that doesn't let up after that first verse. And, of course, Grace's vocals are tough as fucking nails and do a great job at emoting that guttural anger that she feels.
"Be Good" is the opposite. The tempo is about half of what "White Crosses"'s is. We have a more languid acoustic guitar picking away, a very pleasant piano taking us down the road, and Annalisa Tornfelt's vocals are delicate and beautiful and fragile (and shit, man, what a great surname for someone with her vocal style!). A fiddle and an accordion round out the potpourri of Americana sounds. And I feel like it's weird that this is the sixth time I'm writing about this song in the past two weeks, and I haven't mentioned how the piano and guitar trade solos toward the end. This is the sound of a roadhouse band that brings down the joint, and leaves even the most grizzled barfly shedding a tear.
And that will probably be the deciding factor. "White Crosses" makes me emotional, but "Be Good" makes me absolutely swell up with every emotion. And it's crazy, this song came out of left field and stormed the tournament. I don't think I've given "Be Good" a second thought in years, and because I've listened to it so many times while writing these tournament results, it'll probably end up on some kind of list at the end of the year. Against Me! will always be one of the most important bands in my life. I will follow Laura Jane Grace to the ends of the earth. But here, right now, "Be Good" is going to steal this motherfucking victory. Insane.
WINNER:
"Be Good"
Black Prairie
from Fortune
2014
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