Human Highway: "The Sound"

Nick Thorburn is like some kind of evil pop mastermind, always undercutting his sharp impulses in delightful ways—whether it be the ramshackle joke chug of the Unicorns, the unfinished rapcore of Th’ Corn Gangg, or the blissed-out epics of the Islands. But here, for an almost unbelievable two minutes and forty five seconds, we have pure unfiltered songcraft, the sort of carefree late summer jam that feels like it’s always been floating on the airwaves just a little bit closer to the beach than you.

The guitars are crisp, the transitions seamless, and the lyrics universal in the hard-to-pull-off, completely unselfconscious manner of early rock ‘n roll: back when everything hadn’t been said already in a pop song, when bands had the confidence to sing about their feelings plainly yet with the haiku-like touch that makes it so utterly personal. “Got nothing left but it ain’t bringing me down / I’m just gonna follow the sound,” he harmonizes with bandmate Jim Guthrie, and the truth contained in that state of mind hits like a sunbedecked wave over the keening and hopeful but sad melody.

Add to it an inventive beat, bright vibraphone solo and taut, airy production, and you have the sort of forward-thinking throwback that both deserves to and plausibly could be burning up the charts. It’s a little late this year, but maybe summer 2009 will find Thorburn the next indie emissary to the wider world, bringing with him the bittersweet gospel of pop music.