When your mind is open to all possibilities, informed but no longer boxed in by lessons and rote thought, you are ready to start.

The song has its own evidence of this. Most all rock and pop songs will only go through two verses before changing things up in some way. This song goes an audacious extra third consecutive verse before adding a development. It disregards one of the rote lessons of songcraft, in a bold and rewarding way.

This song also has two great instances of two-note combinations that infect the brain in different ways.

First, the song opens with a two-note half-step combo that sounds highly dissonant, considering that an underlying drone note doubles one of the notes in the two-note combo, leaving the other note a half-step up sounding extra strange. Then the full music starts and provides the complete context of where the two-note combo fits. It's a great musical mind trip, playing on the clash of notes to create a unique feel. The part aptly returns in the third verse.

The second combo is far more traditionally harmonic. It's the recurring two-note full-step motif that occurs in the verses as a guitar cue, fitting in as a stylish finish to the verse chord sequence. It occurs again in the chorus as the key vocal line "I would." It's about as strong a two-note cadence as there can be, the seven up to the one, but its deeply serous quality and harmonic conformity make it an exercise in sincere, classical beauty as opposed to the discord of the first example.

Both tactics can be issued forth, the disruptive and the traditional.

In general, the layering and orchestration of instruments in this song are completely outstanding. And the warbly vocalist Win Butler shows why he is one of my favorites currently working.