I’ll begin by admitting this is much too humble a publication for as highfalutin a proclamation as “Song of the Year.” It’s the time of year when every editor is assigning lists and every writer is sifting through the year gone by for something meaningful to declare. It’s a useful enterprise for taking stock and moving on to the new stuff on its way in the year ahead. But all this stuff, no matter how thoughtfully considered, will be forgotten by Valentine’s Day.

But a single song – that has a fighting chance. If it hits you the same way it hits me, it might stick with you. It might become something that resonates in a way that you’ll be able to come back to it later on, as I have been with this song since it was first released in June. And it might help you take a breath and grab onto a tiny bit of faith, or give you strength to keep fighting for something worthwhile. There can’t be more of them than us, right?

I humbly present to you the Department of Tangents’ Song of the Year – “Hope the High Road” by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. It’s a testament to Isbell’s songwriting prowess that his big, hooky rock songs can feel as personal as his ballads. “Hope the High Road” is invigorating emotionally and intellectually, and it’s fun to belt out with the windows down on a sunny day.

It is the perfect song for this particular moment in time, when so many people can’t see each other as human, when leverage is more important than harmony or progress and it feels like hordes of partisan drones are swarming every last bastion of common sense and kindness and eating it alive. This subset, regardless of their nominal ideology, cannot abide deviation. They exist all along the political spectrum, though the most virulent group now has one of their own in the White House. And when any reasonable person takes a minute to breathe and ponder, they jump into the void screaming and insisting they’ve already figured it out.

This is the battle Isbell is fighting in this song. The narrator has reached a level of fatigue with this way of thinking, having realized where it’s creeped into him. “I used to want to be a real man/I don’t know what that even means,” he sings. And he’s breaking free of it. “I’ve heard enough of the white man’s blues/I’ve sang enough about myself.” And through sheer force of will, he’s rejecting the negativity, reaching out to another human being – this has to be a love song, at its core, or else it doesn’t work – and he’s doing something about it. “I ain’t fighting with you down in a ditch/I’ll meet you up here on the road.”

Is this possible? Can anyway take the high road and pull everyone else into that setting? Maybe not. Isbell is no Pollyanna. These are the words of a wary optimist, one who doesn’t necessarily believe the arc of history bends toward justice all on its own. Someone, a lot of someones, has to work to bend it that direction. And it work that needs to be done, even if it’s ultimately fruitless. The work is still worthwhile. “We’ll ride the ship down dumping buckets overboard/There can’t be more of them than us.”

And that hope, it’s hope for everyone. Everyone you’re arguing with now, maybe that was you a couple of years ago. And if you came out of it, maybe they can, too. The only difference between you and the person with whom you’re locked in the death grip of ideological struggle might be a point on a timeline. With some luck and kindness, maybe those points will merge at some point. Maybe you’ll both get home.
That’s what I hear when I listen to this song. That’s why I keep coming back to it, why it helps keep me going when I sing along. And why it’s my song of the year for 2017, and why I can take it with me in 2018 and beyond.

“Hope the High Road” by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

“Hope the High Road”

I used to think that this was my town
What a stupid thing to think
I hear you’re fighting off a breakdown
I myself am on the brink
I used to want to be a real man
I don’t know what that even means
Now I just want you in my arms again
And we can search each other’s dreams

I know you’re tired
And you ain’t sleeping well
Uninspired
And likely mad as hell
But wherever you are
I hope the high road leads you home again

I’ve heard enough of the white man’s blues
I’ve sang enough about myself
So if you’re looking for some bad news
You can find it somewhere else
Last year was a son of a bitch
For nearly everyone we know
But I ain’t fighting with you down in a ditch
I’ll meet you up here on the road

I know you’re tired
And you ain’t sleeping well
Uninspired
And likely mad as hell
But wherever you are
I hope the high road leads you home again
To a world you want to live in

We’ll ride the ship down
Dumping buckets overboard
There can’t be more of them than us
There can’t be more

I know you’re tired
And you ain’t sleeping well
Uninspired
And likely mad as hell
But wherever you are
I hope the high road leads you home again
To a world you want to live in
To a world you want to live in