“Give It” – X-Press 2 with Kurt Wagner
(Words/music: Darren Morris, Kurt Wagner, X-Press 2, available on Makeshift Feelgood, Sony 2006)

Eventually, “Give It” blooms into a lively, pulsing dance with synthesized horns and a choir of backing vocals.  At this point in the song, it becomes a digital gospel choir joining Kurt Wagner’s promise to be patient.  However, the track must grow into this the same way that Wagner’s narrator must learn to be patient.  At the beginning of the song, his narrator contemplates the future, eagerly seeking it out yet fearing the impending change.  He realizes that the moment he’s experiencing will pass and has the instinctive impulse to capture this specific moment.  It’s not quite that simple, as Wagner goes off in a couple tangents, but ultimately this crisis of “now versus then” comes to the forefront.  Alternately put, it’s the decision to focus on enjoying a given moment or think about how the moment fits into the larger picture.  In that sense, it’s a self-awareness of immediately recognizing a given moment as important and knowing that this recognition will change the moment in progress. 

I’ve discussed and thought about this idea a good amount recently in a few different contexts, eventually leading back to the same conclusion and the same example.  I’m way too inside my own head sometimes, and for all the positives that constant self-reflection brings, it makes it very hard to experience something and then “sort it out” later.  I then think about the first time I heard this song – earlier this summer at the end of Lambchop’s set at the Merge Records anniversary shows.  By this point in the set, Wagner and his dozen backing musicians won over the entire room, and Wagner’s impassioned “Give It / Once in a Lifetime” closing went to the next level.  It was a rare moment where I knew what was unfolding – the event’s signature performance – yet I found myself able to silence that part of my brain and be stunned into silence.  Soon afterward, I described it as “a surreal moment that ended a memorable set,” and a few months later I’m still thinking about it.  Ironically, by not immediately processing this moment, I’ve been able to process it a dozen different ways.  I’m still not sure I have a definitive answer, but I’m not sure that’s the point; Wagner’s protagonist turns off his meta-commentary and turns patience into a spiritual revival, and in a way I have too – albeit a series of minor personal revelations.  By quieting my thoughts for a few minutes, I sewed seeds for an entire series of ponderings.  In many ways, I’ll be chasing down that performance (or similar ones) for the rest of my life, and I’m only starting to realize that sometimes it’s worth letting it get a head start so that I can see where it leads me.

More on X-Press 2: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm