I only started listening to The Narcissist Cookbook recently. Matt Johnston's music project spans a wide range of genres and approaches to music, especially on this album, and while I liked a lot of the tracks I hadn't had one hit me right to enter this list.
Judging by his Last.fm page, this short song, a mere 2:25, isn't the most preferred track from his work or This Is How We Get Better. I'm hardly alone in liking it, but it's not the most popular. I find that I like it more consistently than most of his other songs. Each song is good in its own way but they tend to work in such a way that I only think of them or really want to listen at specific times or moods. The album feels personal and the songs about very specific things, so I think that makes sense. the Pattern however is great to listen to at any time. The hum of his repeating voice in the background, the way the pitch of the foreground vocals contrasts against it, the lyrics, they all combine into this particularly stand-out tune.
I particularly like how it opens and closes like the song is part of a loop and you've just got this particular slice of it at this particular moment. It's very effective at supporting the narrative of the lyrics.
One of my favorite ways to listen to this song is to queue it up twice. Hearing the song loop back into itself somehow feels extremely appropriate.
— | linkOne day I will rise up
Light from lack of baggage
Fresh to meet the sunrise