"Rabbit Holes" by Paper Route, Friday, March 11, 2022

In April 2012, five months before they released their second album, The Peace of Wild Things, Paper Route performed a concert in an art studio, which was filmed and aired as the third episode of Brigham Young University Television's music show, Audio Files. The show only lasted for two seasons, but the first episode featured then up-and-coming band Imagine Dragons.  Paper Route performed songs from their first album Absence, but also indulged listeners' expectation by performing several songs from their upcoming album and shared stories about the songs and the recording process.

WE WELCOME YOU THIS EVENING.  The entire performance used to be up on the show's now defunct website, but now we can only watch "Wish" and "Tamed," on YouTube, the latter being a short eerie duet with singer-songwriter Cacie Dalager, lead singer of the indie band Now, Now, and harpist Timbre. I don't remember all of the songs Paper Route performed on the show; however, I'm pretty sure they performed the album closer "Calm My Soul" and today's song "Rabbit Holes," but beyond that I'm a little fuzzy. At the time of the promotion-to-delay-to-promotion of Peace,  I remember Chad Howat talking about the composition of "Rabbit Holes." He said that the string arrangement doesn't resolve; the strings are always looking for the resolution. The deep harmonies in this song remind me of the classical music I grew up listening to, whether it was my great aunt's violin recitals, my grandfather practicing for hours while the rest of the family sat around the dinner table, my mother squeaking and squabbling to prepare something for special music at church because she hated practicing--but pulling it off at the last minute--, or simply just classical records at home. 

NO ONE KNOWS HOW THEY WOUND UP IN RABBIT HOLES. For me, there is only so much emotion a classical piece can convey. It can paint a scene of childhood for me, but a string quartet in E minor does make me feel sad like an Emo rock song can. I don't turn to classical music when I want to dwell in self-pity, but I listen to it to uplift me to a better place. I associate a minor piece with growing up poor or a scene that I'm looking on with others' sadness, not my own. It seems to be a collective experience, whether joyful or morose. I don't think that's how my musical family thinks of music, though. A song like "Rabbit Holes," one with pointed lyrics--I'm guessing aimed at JT Daly's ex-wife--uses composition skills that, without the rock instruments and vocals, I wouldn't associate with lost love. Lyrics reminding listeners of the rabbit hole down which Alice discovers Wonderland, today's song helps to keep The Peace of Wild Things a mixed bag of emotions. The album is filled with profound love songs and songs of deep loss. "Rabbit Holes" doesn't resolve until "Calm My Soul." It throws the album into unpredictability toward the end, but the unpredictability is really what Paper Route is all about. And yes, this was quite the rabbit hole.

Audio:

Live performance: 

 

Read “Rabbit Holes” by Paper Route on Genius