Came across this song ("You Are the Moon") by The Hush Sound a few days ago. Beautiful imagery...
Shadows all around you
As you surface from the dark
Emerging from the gentle grip
Of night's unfolding arms
Darkness, darkness everywhere,
Do you feel alone?
The subtle grace of gravity,
The heavy weight of stone
You don't see what you possess,
A beauty calm and clear
It floods the sky and blurs the darkness
Like a chandelier
All the light that you possess
Is skewed by lakes and seas
The shattered surface, so imperfect,
Is all that you believe
I will bring a mirror,
So silver, so exact,
So precise and so pristine,
A perfect pane of glass
I will set the mirror up
To face the blackened sky
You will see your beauty every
Moment that you rise
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Realising Reality
While skimming through some recent mod picks, I came across this short story. Its interesting plot and use of unreliable narration makes it one of the better shorts I've read in a while. The bit about the psychologist's report reminds me of the movie "Shutter Island". Lunatic or genious? There seems to be quite a fine line between the two...
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Quiet Things
A couple days ago, I downloaded Brand New's "The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows" after hearing it in a mashup song with Dashboard Confessional. Already, it's become one of my all-time favorites... and I have a feeling that some of the band's other songs are soon to follow. Here are the lyrics:
I've heard a lot of different interpretations for this particular song, and each of them are powerful and moving in its own way. Brand New really displays songwriting brilliance in this song. To me, it means something along these lines:
"We saw the western coast. I saw the hospital; nursed the shoreline like a wound." The first line is a metaphor about the end of a couple's relationship. He's known for a while that their marriage was hanging by a thread, but he kept trying to 'nurse it back to health'. Now, he realizes that it's over for good, and he starts to reminisce over the time they spent together.
In the beginning of their relationship, the young couple made some bad desicions and she conceived before they were married. "Reports of lover's tryst were neither clear nor descript" refers to the rumors that had begun to circulate about it, while the next line, "we kept it safe and slow" is their adamant refusal to confirm these rumors to anyone. "The quiet things that no one ever knows" contradicts the previous (false) statement, and is the underlying theme in the song. The narrator is sadly remembering his early mistakes, and the suffering he had to face by keeping them a secret.
"I contemplate the day we wed." Self-explanatory: he now recalls their wedding day. "Your friends are boring me to death." By this time, he had already begun to fall out of love with her, but he had to go through with the rushed wedding anyway, in order to cover up their mistakes. "Your veil is ruined by the rain" is an omen of the trouble that was to come.
The miserable years of their marriage scrape along slowly. "By then, it's you I can do without. There is nothing new to talk about." It is clear that there is no longer any love in their relationship. "Though our kids are blessed" (with the gift of life), "their parents let them shoulder all the blame." The parents blame the kids for their forced marriage and the resulting unhappiness.
The chorus seems to be a note he's left for his wife, telling her that he's finally leaving. "So keep the blood in your head, and keep your feet on the ground" is him telling her to stay calm and not flip out over the announcement. (It could also mean that he's asking her to avoid committing suicide, in which case they were going through a rockier time than the song lets on.) "Today's the day it gets tired; today's the day we drop out." He's just become emotionally drained, and is finally calling it quits. "Gave up my body and bed all for an empty hotel." Instead of filing an official divorce claim, he's decided to just leave. He's giving up his body (wife) and bed (home), and is going to wait things out at some lonely hotel room while he figures out the rest of his life. "Wasting words on lower cases and capitals" is his guilt at writing all of this stuff down in a note, instead of telling his wife how he feels. It was this evasive nature that caused them trouble in the begining, and yet even now he can't bring himself to break the lifelong habit.
"I lie for only you. And I lie well. Hallelu." Most of all, he wants her to know that the reason he put up with it for so long was for her sake. He managed to convince everyone else that their facade of a happy marriage was true-- and now he regrets those lies. The sarcastic "hallelu" is his bitter conclusion to the story.
This song evokes so much emotion, and is so beautifully written. Brand New performs emo music at its best: no suicidal screaming, no manical bashing of mics into walls, just a few guys singing about the struggles of life. In the end, that's what the genre is really about.
We saw the western coast
I saw the hospital
Nursed the shoreline like a wound
Reports of lover's tryst
Were neither clear nor descript
We kept it safe and slow
The quiet things that no one ever knows
So keep the blood in your head
And keep your feet on the ground
Today's the day it gets tired
Today's the day we drop out
Gave up my body and bed
All for an empty hotel
Wasting words on lower cases and capitals
I contemplate the day we wed
Your friends are boring me to death
Your veil is ruined in the rain
By then it's you I can do without
There's nothing new to talk about
And though our kids are blessed
Their parents let them shoulder all the blame
So keep the blood in your head
And keep your feet on the ground
Today's the day it gets tired
Today's the day we drop out
Gave up my body and bed
All for an empty hotel
Wasting words on lower cases and capitals
I lie for only you
And I lie well...
Hallelu...
I've heard a lot of different interpretations for this particular song, and each of them are powerful and moving in its own way. Brand New really displays songwriting brilliance in this song. To me, it means something along these lines:
"We saw the western coast. I saw the hospital; nursed the shoreline like a wound." The first line is a metaphor about the end of a couple's relationship. He's known for a while that their marriage was hanging by a thread, but he kept trying to 'nurse it back to health'. Now, he realizes that it's over for good, and he starts to reminisce over the time they spent together.
In the beginning of their relationship, the young couple made some bad desicions and she conceived before they were married. "Reports of lover's tryst were neither clear nor descript" refers to the rumors that had begun to circulate about it, while the next line, "we kept it safe and slow" is their adamant refusal to confirm these rumors to anyone. "The quiet things that no one ever knows" contradicts the previous (false) statement, and is the underlying theme in the song. The narrator is sadly remembering his early mistakes, and the suffering he had to face by keeping them a secret.
"I contemplate the day we wed." Self-explanatory: he now recalls their wedding day. "Your friends are boring me to death." By this time, he had already begun to fall out of love with her, but he had to go through with the rushed wedding anyway, in order to cover up their mistakes. "Your veil is ruined by the rain" is an omen of the trouble that was to come.
The miserable years of their marriage scrape along slowly. "By then, it's you I can do without. There is nothing new to talk about." It is clear that there is no longer any love in their relationship. "Though our kids are blessed" (with the gift of life), "their parents let them shoulder all the blame." The parents blame the kids for their forced marriage and the resulting unhappiness.
The chorus seems to be a note he's left for his wife, telling her that he's finally leaving. "So keep the blood in your head, and keep your feet on the ground" is him telling her to stay calm and not flip out over the announcement. (It could also mean that he's asking her to avoid committing suicide, in which case they were going through a rockier time than the song lets on.) "Today's the day it gets tired; today's the day we drop out." He's just become emotionally drained, and is finally calling it quits. "Gave up my body and bed all for an empty hotel." Instead of filing an official divorce claim, he's decided to just leave. He's giving up his body (wife) and bed (home), and is going to wait things out at some lonely hotel room while he figures out the rest of his life. "Wasting words on lower cases and capitals" is his guilt at writing all of this stuff down in a note, instead of telling his wife how he feels. It was this evasive nature that caused them trouble in the begining, and yet even now he can't bring himself to break the lifelong habit.
"I lie for only you. And I lie well. Hallelu." Most of all, he wants her to know that the reason he put up with it for so long was for her sake. He managed to convince everyone else that their facade of a happy marriage was true-- and now he regrets those lies. The sarcastic "hallelu" is his bitter conclusion to the story.
This song evokes so much emotion, and is so beautifully written. Brand New performs emo music at its best: no suicidal screaming, no manical bashing of mics into walls, just a few guys singing about the struggles of life. In the end, that's what the genre is really about.
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