"Trees," a beguiling love song by the indie-rock band Everest, plays out like a John Hughes film in a parallel universe: Boy meets girl at party; sparks fly; boy goes home alone with his thoughts, only to wake up to the trees calling out his sweetheart's name. This time, however, the hold-up to the happy ending isn't James Spader, but the arrival of actual maturity.
"I need time to make things right," Russell Pollard sings repeatedly in the chorus, repeating it like a mantra before sweetly confessing, "I want you by my side." It's rock at its most alluring and innocent, a crushworthy ode to hesitation that plays out with a combination of naivete and sprightly gorgeousness. Pollard seems dazzled by the rush of feelings the song captures, but he's also more than a little protective of it. It's hard not to be swept up in his sense of revelation.
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