Last year, M.C. Taylor took on the deep and powerful nature of relationships in Heart Like A Levee. But it looks like the North Carolina folk-rocker who records primarily as Hiss Golden Messenger has something else on his heart. On the new stand-alone singel “Standing In The Doorway” — which came from the same sessions as Levee — Taylor is in confessional mode, confronting his own tendency toward childlike behavior.
The song starts off slow and low, before swinging into some serious countrified funk, as Taylor floats out the idea of being “lonely with each other,” a naked and intimate sentiment for a massively emotional song. It may begin slow-burning, more in the vein of Hiss Golden Messenger’s past folksy oeuvre, but this builds into an enormous whirlwind of drums, guitars, and Taylor’s piercing voice.
The Ryan Adams fan says he left the song off of Heart because he couldn’t find a slot for it and also because he felt the song — unlike the narrator — was strong enough to stand alone.
“I think I was trying to understand if and whether luck was related to my life at the time,”he told NPR. “I always liked this tune, but it didn’t seem to fit the emotional arc of [Heart Like A Levee] for some reason. It also seemed like it could survive on its own, away from other songs that might give it context.”
Not only does the song survive, but it works as a blueprint of survival for the rest of us. Listen above.
