In the music video for "Carl Sagan", Minneapolis rock duo Night Moves (John Pelant and Micky Alfano) drive into the middle of the California Desert for unknown purposes. They eventually stop the car, and turn down the volume (at 2:27), momentarily muting the song as the camera pans to reveal a brief glimpse of some mysterious atmospheric phenomenon in the distance before the song ends.
The video presumably serves as a visual metaphor for the theme that runs through Night Moves' sophomore album Pennied Days (2016). As Pelant has stated, “A lot of the songs are about trying to find yourself and what your future will look like and who you are – life overall" (Domino Records). But what does popular astronomer and science populariser Carl Sagan have do with this urgent, melodic and airy pysch-rock song about anxiety and uncertainty about the future?
The track's title may be an indirect allusion to the irresistible gravitational pull of the thoughts and questions in the speaker's head:
'I'm a fool in repeating my plans and a fools right calling my name
I'm a fool to relate to you with all the things I do and say
Am I a fool to ignore them? How else shall I go on?
Am I a fool to expect that someday I'm gonna be gone?
Oh you've been around
Oh you've seen
Oh you've been around
Slowly turning'
Lyrics: Musixmatch.com
The meaning of the song's lyrics may remain ambiguous ('Oh feels lying a perception of a view that causes calm/ Oh hunger lives in a game when a family dead and gone'), but the appeal of Pelant's charimatic, belting falsetto and the song's effective blend of canonical rock influences (Pelant counts Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, Todd Rundgren, Lindsey Buckingham and Bob Dylan as key influencers) with orchestral and synth pads and piano accompaniments - which add a pleasant modern twist - makes for an unmistakably compelling listen.
