____twoism

Generic question for a generic thread, but still could be something interesting to discuss.

I am curious to know people's personal opinions and interpretations.

List what you feel is the saddest (not serenely or comfortably sad, genuinely hopeless and morbid) BoC track followed by what you feel is the most reflective of happiness.

I will go first:
Saddest - Come to Dust
Happiest - Poppy Seed (Reprise)

Just passing the time until the next release.

Saddest - Farewell Fire // Corsair // Jacquard Causeway
Happiest - Chromakey Dreamcoat // Roygbiv

Saddest - Over The Horizon Radar, Kiteracer 2, or Corsair
Happiest - Roygbiv, Sequoia, Dayvan Cowboy

Over The Horizon Radar especially for personal reasons.

Over The Horizon Radar is weird to sleep to.

Saddest - Corsair. Probably 'hopeless' is a better description. Like a siren warning of an incoming massive disaster that you can do nothing to avoid, it really feels like a punch in the gut, just utter desolation and despair. Very apocalyptic.

Happiest - From One Source All Things Depend. Just the contrast from the rest of Geogaddi, especially coming after Corsair and the silence of Magic Window, it's incredible. Even after the scary and strange journey of the album and the incredible darkness and despair of Corsair and the nothingness of Magic Window, a flicker of hope appears. I know this track can be interpreted in many different ways, but I cling to the innocent, hopeful interpretation. A really important, emotional track to me.

Somehow BoC managed to create two perfect endings to Geogaddi, and they're complete opposites. Really awesome.

Runners up for happiest would be Roygbiv and a lot of the tracks from the first half of Campfire Headphase.

Agreed with Corsair for saddest. Semena Mertvykh is a close second.

R35TT B09 is the happiest I can think of.

I think the saddest is either Farewell Fire or Nothing is Real.

This interview quote from Mike explains Farewell Fire pretty well:

“Farewell Fire" is Marcus on keyboards, nothing more. He made it one night during a session. There are faltering moments and it really sounds like someone who, because of grief, isn't in a good state to go on playing. That's something you could never reach with programming. Although it's an electronic piece, it sounds very human and heart rending. Just at the moment it stops, it's like a faltering breath, like a voice that's just fell silent."

As for Nothing is Real, the melody feels so bittersweet, like the recognition that the happiness you’re feeling is temporary and destined to fade. To accompany the music, the distorted voice in the background basically tells you that Jesus was lying about immortality, and should have instead comforted us in the knowledge that everyone dies... that one’s depressing on a deep level.

My vote for happiest goes to B07 from R35TT. The Boards sound like they were in a pretty good mood when they wrote it.

Solynth wrote:R35TT B09 is the happiest I can think of.

Me too , this is one of the songs that come in my mind spontaneously as the happiest... pure joyful bliss (without any uneasy elements of nostalgia or melancholy)...

I'd add 5.9.78 or 1986 Summer Fire as the saddest ones, though not in a negative way - it's just a very deep provoking nostalgia, an obsessive desire you just want back the best of your life...

(btw over the years [I'm 33] I don't take nostalgia feelings so seriously, because I think it's distorted... you just don't see difficulties, fears, baddest days from back then in childhood etc. anymore, so my advice is - just don't take it that seriously, there were pros and cons as they're now in the presence and will be in the future... I think it's more like a "God gift" you aren't that much burdened with the past, so you can move along and remember more of its better parts)...

Mostly agreed with your take on nostalgia. As the venerable Eugene Hutz (frontman of Gogol Bordello) once sang, “there were never any good old days- they are today, they are tomorrow.”

But I occasionally allow myself to indulge in it anyway. Part of being human.

SamuraiDrifter wrote:Mostly agreed with your take on nostalgia. As the venerable Eugene Hutz (frontman of Gogol Bordello) once sang, “there were never any good old days- they are today, they are tomorrow.”

But I occasionally allow myself to indulge in it anyway. Part of being human.

Thank you and indeed...

The happiest track for me is of course Sir Prancelot Brainfire. Just happy innocence and nostalgia all the way through. It's one of those tracks I can play endlessly and never get tired of, just perfect <3



The saddest track for me is a harder pick, but that would be Farewell Fire. There is so much pain in that track and it feels very personal. With the long fadeout the grief just lingers on until it's completely comforted by silence, beautiful.

squid wrote:Saddest - Corsair. Probably 'hopeless' is a better description. Like a siren warning of an incoming massive disaster that you can do nothing to avoid, it really feels like a punch in the gut, just utter desolation and despair. Very apocalyptic.

It's funny, because Corsair actually does the opposite for me. The way you describe that track is so spot on though(!), but the difference is that I get the feeling that because all hope is gone and there is this utter desolation and despair, total surrender is the only option left and exactly that makes the track kind of bittersweet. As if all the pain and emptiness were predestined to lead to a total surrender, which is what one was looking for in the first place, only to find that out after the surrender happened. Like an eternally peaceful end to a painful journey.

I sometimes daydream about the whole world going to shit apocalypse style and I kinda like that thought. All expressions of life are temporary and fade in time, life is so fragile, yet at the same time there is something cosmically okay underneath all that, which cannot be put into words. But this music reflects that for me.

Solynth wrote:R35TT B09 is the happiest I can think of.

SamuraiDrifter wrote:My vote for happiest goes to B07 from R35TT. The Boards sound like they were in a pretty good mood when they wrote it.

These two are certainly the happiest for me. I love it when every melodic part comes together near the end of B09, and I love it when the beat briefly kicks in on B07.

The saddest, I think, is more subjective and personal. I've always found Sixtyniner to be a very emotionally stimulating piece. The melodies are indescribable. It makes me feel like I deeply miss something but I'll never know what it is.

The best thing about Boards of Canada's music is the unique feeling that almost nothing else ever evokes. The best way I can describe it would be the longing for a time that never was. It's nostalgia not only for the forgotten past but for an alternate present had different choices and actions been made given the knowledge of the possible outcomes.

SamuraiDrifter wrote:As for Nothing is Real, the melody feels so bittersweet, like the recognition that the happiness you’re feeling is temporary and destined to fade. To accompany the music, the distorted voice in the background basically tells you that Jesus was lying about immortality, and should have instead comforted us in the knowledge that everyone dies... that one’s depressing on a deep level.

I dunno, my take on Nothing Is Real has always been that the greed in humans is that we want immortality, because we are imprisoned in time and therefore want more than what is already here, right now. All life forms (expressions of life itself) are destined to dissolve. Yet life itself underneath (where all life forms are born out of) has always been eternal. Like how death is nature's mercy, nothing lasts forever except life itself.

I guess there is a bittersweet something about impermanence yeah. Nothing Is Real reflects that beautifully.

Happiest, I guess something like Aquarius or B07, maybe David Came to Mahani'im...

I have a hard time with the intro to EYDIAB, Nothing is Real for sure too, but in a good way. It's quintessential Boards but I think in a way, besides it's surface interpretation, it's telling the listener that this type of sound can't live forever, and it's greedy of the listener to expect it to.

Saddest: Semena Mertvykh, followed by Corsair, and Sundown in 3rd place.

Happiest: Nlogax. Didn't even have to think about it.

Happiest: Audiotrack 04 On side A of R35T
Saddest: Forest Moon followed by Diving Station
Most nostalgic: Dave (I'm a Real Traditionalist) followed by King of Carnival
Most beautiful: 5.9.78

I don't think I could pigeonhole any of their tracks into straight happy or sad. Their tunes are too complex for that, as are our emotions lol sorry to be a dick about it but that's how feel

I dont know if this counts but..
The hopeless "rut" of boqurant followed by the cathartic release/ new dawn of 5.9.78 is so powerful to me. It's like being stuck in a moment where nothing is right, nothing makes sense, and there's no way out, only to have the hand of a friend reach down to you from above. Or a lightbulb going off in your head... or having a really difficult trip only to wake up tomorrow feeling like you've learned something important.. or embarking on a long road trip after a catalyst happened. Oh I could go on.

After you've had this moment in 5.9.78 where you've reached this "epiphany", the beat rolls in and... this is the moment you've been waiting for and you're going to make it happen!

luminousdusk wrote:I don't think I could pigeonhole any of their tracks into straight happy or sad. Their tunes are too complex for that, as are our emotions lol sorry to be a dick about it but that's how feel

Hey, you aren't being a dick. That is precisely why I started this thread. Even the happiest BoC tracks contain bittersweetness and even the saddest ones tend to have glimmers of hope. That is why I asked for individual opinions, because a lot of tracks that I would consider are generally positive with underlying melancholia have been listed here as other people's saddest tracks.

It isn't about pigeonholing, more about getting to know more about the listeners and their perceptions of tracks. They all exist on an emotional spectrum, which is why I stated "saddest" as opposed to "sad".