AOY: Still Night, Still Light

One of my favorite musical moments of the year was seeing this band only a few days after Michael Jackson's death. After their set at Bowery Ballroom, they brought out the two opening acts and launched into an impromptu encore of "Man in the Mirror." The collective could only manage one verse before stumbling over the lyrics and simply recycling the chorus over and over again, but still, it was a moment. Still Night, Still Light is an unabashedly pretty record (as Au Revoir Simone themselves are unabashedly pretty--we should all be so lucky to be as unabashedly pretty as Still Night, Still Light and ARS--pretty, pretty, pretty is what I'm saying here). This album sort of soundtracked a New York spring/summer in a really great, organic way. But as I type this I'm back visiting in Indiana, and the snow is falling, blanketing the forests, floating down the river in icy packs. Funny thing is, this record still fits.