See, all I needed was some danger. Capital Cities’ “Safe and Sound’s” saccharine, syrupy, sympathetic synths usually slip from my ears the moment the song finishes. Which has nothing to do, clearly, with the track’s technical perfection. After all, it was summer of 2011 when a band with oversized glasses sent a small group of indie bloggers I pal’d around with apoplectic with music nerd boners. Its 2013 now: and those erections haven’t gone away. Which tells me that 1) life isn’t a Viagra commercial and 2) if any track deservedly has fucking legs, it’s “Safe and Sound”. But it never had that effect on me. And that’s because while, to most people, it’s smart to suffocate themselves in the track’s warm embrace, I always burst from it, punching my way out of it, gasping.

Part of it’s that I’m a masochist. Most of it’s that I don’t understand the impulse to seek music that soothes, that slips the mind into complacency. Because that’s what I think being “safe and sound” is:  a dangerous numbness–and I don’t think I’ve felt that way my entire life. I don’t mind treading through life in a hurricane of frowns. I don’t even mind having people tag along with me; but I want the music I associate with those moments to be as full of dramatic flair as the hybrid fine line of exhilaration /suicidal ideation I live my life straddling. So my biggest question for Capital Cities was always:

“If there’s a hurricane afoot, where’s the thunder?”

But Story of the Running Wolf bring it to the table in spades. And not through any of that traditional trap that’s trilling its way about or danger induced by dubstep, but by exploiting synths that scintillate with sadness. These synths stick with you, like a satiating meal of struggle downed with a bottle of saki to wash away your troubles. I don’t think the protagonist of SOTRW’s song really believes things are going to be ‘safe and sound’; but that’s part of their remix’s appeal, it leaves them with the ability to explore another avenue. Their track drips with an impulse to live, and their protagonist sees ‘comfort’ as an instrumental, albeit temporary force field in the ability to survive well in the world; or to circle the drain, a hair out of darkness’ reach.

This is exemplary at 2:26, and when those synths kick in post-bridge, it’s like ‘Oh, so…orgasmic’. That part, replete with the perfect combo of stress, fear and conviction, put me into bliss. Oh, boy…did I just out myself as a danger slut?

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Capital Cities – Safe and Sound (Story of the Running Wolf Remix) by Story of the Running Wolf

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