Falling Leaves

 "Falling Leaves" is my favorite song in the early-period Sixpence sub-genre I'll call "just thinkin' 'bout my thoughts," which includes "Thought Menagerie" (obviously) and "Musings." And like those two songs, "Falling Leaves" isn't really "about" anything. Ostensibly, it's about standing in a forest and watching the leaves change and then falling to the forest floor and being covered by the leaves and then sinking into the ground, never to be found. (This is what we call, in the biz, a "literal reading.") 

The chorus is a young Leigh Bingham at her 10,000 Maniacs/ Cranberries-ish best -- her vocal on "never to be / never to be found" is right in the sweet spot for her range, exquisite, unhoned and pure.

This is 100% the kind of song you write when you are a teenager just figuring out how to write songs. While a lot of The Fatherless and the Widow transcends this sort of thing, I find "Falling Leaves" quite charming in this respect. The song feels like a vehicle to do interesting things with the guitar -- and even bass, an instrument whose prominence on this record I have neglected, no matter how often various former bass players (there must be hundreds) in Sixpence comment on this blog. There are almost some New Order-style, bass-as-guitar riffs on this track, which I love, but Slocum's love of chunka-chunka riffs with digital delay -- which will reach their absolute chunka-chunka-iest on "Love" -- is what drives this song.