https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHC0hXcXpi8

“If You See Light” stands out on Get Lonely because of the drums, but it’s right at home with the overall message.

Track: “If You See Light”
Album: Get Lonely (2006)

“If You See Light” thematically fits with the rest of Get Lonely, but it’s a different sonic experience. It’s upbeat, for one, and the horns and the crashing percussion make it a strange cousin to most of the darkness on the rest of the album. It’s absolutely at home as a song about monsters and lonely experiences as humanity turns their back, but it’s one you might turn to in a slightly brighter mood, as well.

John Darnielle once said in an interview that they made some of the crashing noises by just throwing things like music stands around in the studio. The result is chaotic, which works with the jam, but it’s also difficult to replicate. That’s what makes this such a good studio song, though the live versions allow John Darnielle to stretch his range and scream out the “and no one knows how to keep secrets ’round here // they tell everyone everything soon as they know” part, which I encourage you to seek out.

It’s a cousin to “Up the Wolves,” I think, in that it’s about what you do when you’re pushed to your breaking point. The difference is that in “If You See Light,” the subjects waiting for the crowd don’t feel as confident they’ll be able to withstand the attack. The beat and the drums may suggest triumph, but there’s a strong suggestion that at the end of winter, things are going to go much worse here.