Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Caroline Keys – “Auld Lang Syne Language”

Caroline Keys‘s “Auld Lang Syne Language” is a lilting trance chant set atop a looping set of loping guitar chords. A repeating lyric form of “X don’t Y themselves” yields a list of combinations that weave between mundane, whimsical, and absurd: Quacks don’t duck themselves, Shirts don’t tuck themselves; Wounds don’t heal themselves, Drugs don’t deal themselves. Metaphors about action and responsibility, about cause and effect feel especially potent in the moment and demonstrate the organizing principle of this edition of Ball of Wax: each song to be written between election night and the following weekend. This song feels light while wading directly into the murkiness and wonder of human existence. The writing is subtle enough to keep it universal; there’s not a direct reference to voting or anything that would really nail it to the zeitgeist. Tasteful minimalist post-Americana that manages to find celebration in the face of anxious times with clean guitar and banjo, chiming chords and keyboards, and sweet vocal harmonies.