It makes sense for a song about traveling to spend most of its four minutes in a state of slow build: The Silent Years' "On Our Way Home" takes its sweet time drifting and fluttering along, as singer Josh Epstein issues falsetto-soaked ruminations on burying photo albums, getting lost and celebrating the memories of lost loved ones. It arrives at a dizzying climax eventually, but it meanders purposefully on its way there.
The Silent Years' music is so disarmingly good-natured and appealing that it's easy to lose sight of the thematic ambition at work in "On Our Way Home," as Epstein finally lands on something approaching a unifying theory on life and death: "Everyone who's ever been is in us / Everyone we've ever known is here." His journey to that point may be pockmarked with turmoil and doubt — "On our way home, we realized we had just become big embarrassments / Everyone we've ever known has been laughing" — but that just makes the song's sublime payoff feel that much more satisfying and hard-won.
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