However Young They Are

Tobin Sprout didn't give Robert Pollard much to work with on what became the song "However Young They Are." Sprout's part in the collaboration is minimalist: a quiet drum machine beat, a strummed acoustic guitar and some barely there keyboard washes (shades of Todd Tobias there). Pollard took to the challenge with gusto, creating a melody that finds the subtle hooks in Sprout's recording, enhancing it in every way.

Pollard sings -- or rather, implores -- the listener: "And lead your people, however young they are." Who is the leader? Who are these young people? He doesn't say. Whatever the story here, it's a recent development. He intones in a voiceover toward the end of the track, sounding like Michael Stipe in R.E.M.'s "Belong,"

The wait is over
Prior to this blessed event
We felt nothing
Now we are clearheaded
And able to see in the dark

With the drum-machine handclaps in Sprout's beat, I imagine legions of young people, marching toward some unnamed inevitable, clapping in unison while Pollard leads them on. If nothing else, I just wrote a treatment for a video for the song. Paging Steven Soderbergh...