Indian Summer - ‘Orchard’ from Discography (2002)
this is the first song of theirs that I heard (and along with Moss Icon, ‘Guatemala’, the first classically emo songs) on a internet page of mp3s, and the choice is sort of double-edged. on the one hand, it’s one of their most stirring songs, although not necessarily the most, while on the other the echo-y effect on the guitar that comes through on the recording is slightly anomalous for their work, though it has its own charm too. in fact, it’s the poor quality of the recording - the vinyl pops, the wobbling chimes of guitar - that make this song hit the spot so well. faute de mieux.
and perhaps the people that got to see them live, or have some original 7” which sounds slightly different, would strongly disagree. for my part, I don’t want to seem an intergenerational Luddite celebrating the inherited technological problems of the past decade, but it wouldn’t be the same without that archival roughness.
