Pulmonary Archery
Pulmonary Archery is the 11th and final track on Alexisonfire's 2002 eponymous debut album.I pirated this song off Limewire sometime in 2006, back in the days when it was still difficult to torrent entire albums. I would simply look up an artist and download random songs of theirs that I could find in order to listen to them - whatever had seeds. Youtube was in its infancy, and I hadn't even heard of it yet, and instead me and my classmates would watch music videos on musicjesus.com. I remember watching the video for My Chemical Romance's "Welcome to the Black Parade" over and over and over again. I also remember watching some 50 Cent video several times because it featured numerous topless women and I'd yet to discover internet pornography. I was young, naive, and hadn't fallen in love with music yet.
I had a friend who was a couple of years older than me called Laura. I didn't have many friends back then so I appreciated her a lot, and we'd talk daily on MSN. At the time I think the only CDs I owned were Gnarls Barkley and Kaiser Chiefs, and I'd potentially pirated Arctic Monkey's first album. The songs on them were cool, and I liked them. But I didn't love them. One day Laura told me about a band called Alexisonfire. Already the name struck me - Alex is on fire? Poor Alex, I hope it turns out alright. It took me a few months before I even learned that it is actually said as if it were Alexis on fire. Though the sentiment still stood - I hoped Alexis was alright too.
My parents got me an mp3 player for my birthday that year, seeing as I had started buying CDs and learning about music a little. Pulmonary Archery was the only Alexisonfire song I had been able to download, so I put it on there. The next morning, I played it as I walked to school. It was unlike anything I had ever heard before.
If you have never listened to music with screamed vocals before, I think it takes most people a while to ease into. It's scary, intimidating in a way, it's a raucous and abrasive sound. Alexisonfire's first album was wonderfully lo-fi, which only added to the raw aggression of the screaming. But alongside those pained screams were beautiful clean vocals and interesting melodic guitar lines, features I would later learn are the defining features of the post-hardcore genre which I would fall in love with. This music was different to everything I had listened to before; it wasn't just something to tap my feet to. I felt a connection to it.
I wasn't even sure if I liked it at first. Like I said, screaming is not an easy thing to "like" to begin with. But I played it on repeat all the way to school, and all the way home that day. And all that week. I couldn't stop listening to Pulmonary Archery.
I listened to the song again this morning. If I listen to a song too many times, I get bored of it, burned out on it. My taste in music changes with time and my mood, and I move on from bands and entire genres. I find a new band whose sound is fresh and unique to me, and binge on their collection until my aural thirst is satiated. But this song is different. I have never grown bored of this song. I could still listen to it on repeat all day. And when it came on this morning, it still made me feel the same way it did when I first heard it on my way to school 12 years ago.