The book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer investigates the last few years of the life of Chris McCandless who left his comfortable life in an affluent family in Atlanta for a life of wandering the States to find himself in wild places. Ultimately McCandless winds up illprepared to face the Alaskan outback where he dreamed to live free of contact from the world. The book is rather captivating and those who read it tend to fall into two camps of opinion on McCandless: those who feel sympathy for his struggle to be free and those who think he is a total bonehead. Regardless of your views of McCandless, I think most of us who love the outdoors have some shred of desire to dropout and spend our lives outdoors, living more simply, in the setting we love. It is that spirit that is captured in the soundtrack for the film. Eddie Vedder pens and performs a set of of songs that both inspire and evoke feelings of wanderlust.  I found that the lyrics struck a chord in me and while I may not entirely identify with the “dropout” mentality, it certainly has crossed my mind a few times since adolesence.  The best track on the record is “Hard Sun” which I find really inspiring from both the lyrics and the driven, yet jubilant tune and the harmonies are great on the chorus.  The song “Society” is the dropout anthem with some really moving lyrics that call into question the mode of excess of our current society.  I find most of the … Continue Reading