#138, "I Sent You Up," Knife In The Water (1997)

150 Favorite Songs: #138, "I Sent You Up," Knife In The Water (1997)

There was a brief moment when Knife In The Water was the best band in Austin, writing songs that their peers would envy. This was around 2002, right when I first moved to the city and was deeply obsessed with finding the best bands in town, and I was spoiled for choice. Their peers at that point were Okkervil River, Explosions In The Sky, Spoon, Trail Of Dead—good bands, all of whom went on to get more famous than this one did.

It's not an insult to say they never wrote another song as good as "I Sent You Up," though, because this one is pretty much perfect. Listen to the harmonies on that chorus! The way the slide guitar comes in! The easy delivery of lyrics describing something terrible, in the classic murder ballad tradition. It sounds timeless, like something you could hear just as easily in Willie Nelson's voice. It doesn't sound like just another indie rock song from when I was 22. There’s a certain kind of murder ballad that works best, and “I Sent You Up” is very much one of them. It's sad and creepy—and tender, too, in a way that just makes it so much creepier. There's a reason songs like this resonate with us, and always have.

But mostly, I love "I Sent You Up" because it captures a moment for me when I first came to Austin and was amazed at all of these talented people who were just doing it. And the fact that this band wasn't one of the ones who broke out and got famous, that makes it even more important to me to keep "I Sent You Up" alive. It sounds really significant to me now. The song is as good as anything else that came out of its time and place, which puts it on par with a lot of great music, but its time has passed, at least a little bit. That happens to everything, eventually, and I think that's why I love this song now more than I did when I first heard it. Because it's no less great than it was when Knife In The Water might have become as big as their contemporaries, and this one belongs to that place, and that time. The others belong to the world.