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It\u2019s been more than a week since daylight savings but I\u2019m still feeling the drag of that lost hour. Is it really the first day of spring? The minute we\u2019re launched, gratefully, out of stagnant winter, time speeds up. Dismal February gives way to gentle April with barely a breath to acknowledge March.<\/p>\n
At the moment, though, winter is making a defiant, snowy last stand. I\u2019m barricaded in my room listening to the best evidence I have that the last month really happened\u2014\u201cGoing Under\u201d by the Dodos<\/a>, off their new record No Color, <\/em>which came out March 15.<\/em> The song is a strange, boisterous anthem, jolting through fitful rhythms like winter tripping towards spring. It begins in an off-kilter 6\/8 and then, with a subtle shift in time and tone, slips into a joyful 4\/4, Meric Long\u2019s voice suffused in a chorus of ethereal harmonies. A soft thump of the bass drum marks the final switch to 3\/4, and without a backward glance the song explodes into a howling, percussive crescendo and then a soft, wordless conclusion.<\/p>\n Throughout No Color<\/em> The Dodos display a rare reliance on rhythm to lend power and depth to their nimble melodies. They\u2019re not the first, though. More than anything, \u201cGoing Under\u201d reminds me of \u201cLucy in the Sky With Diamonds\u201d by the Beatles<\/a>. Remember that languorous, waltzy first verse, and those three, glorious hits that signal the beginning of the chorus in 4? \u201cLucy in the skyyyy with diamonds!\u201d crows John, joyfully, inexplicably. Who knows what it means\u2014I was always just happy to sing along.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n