On Anthems And Theme Songs

Very few good bands have successfully written songs that are personal anthems, or theme songs. Belle and Sebastian nearly based its career on them, until it released "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" and changed its career arc. The exquisiteness of those early songs, though, accompanied by the delicately self-referential liner notes, are nothing but another quiver in the band's cap (or arrow or whatever).

But for favorite anthem I have to take the New Pornographers' "Wild Homes," from its first record. The lyrics are obtuse, as they are for almost all of the band's songs, so their content doesn't perfectly describe the band, its members or their raison d'etre. But with all three leaders (Dan Bejar, Neko Case and A.C. Newman) trading verses -- a rarity -- through this rush of a song, it somehow encapsulates their band like other bands' other songs don't (not that everyone is trying). "Wild Homes" sounds like a power-pop version of a superhero's theme song, with squawks of horns, a mess of instruments, verses and melodies that sound like they're cars careening around corners in chase of a bad guy, and a final vocal line, "To wild homes we go / To wild homes we return," that might be a mantra or a call to the band's equivalent of the Batcave.

When Case hands the vocals to Bejar, who then gives them to Newman, I picture each one sitting behind the wheel, hurtling to some emergency, communicating with the others by special sky signals and then joining forces as they save day and harmonize at the end. It's a wonderful rush that "Batman" certainly doesn't give me. Guys, should you ever want to film a music video for the song, even 10 years after its release, give me a call. This is only the start of my ideas.

Unfortunately, YouTube doesn't have a video of the song, so you'll have to use your imagination and settle for the one above, for "Letter From An Occupant," the confounding yet catchy song from the same record that made the New Pornographers relatively famous.