Preface
I’ve heard two songs from this album before. it does sound a bit whiny in the first glimpse but if you try to connect with it, it will not disappoint you. some really intimate and vulnerable moments in it might even make you shed a tear or two. the main theme is almost a worn-out typical heartbreak, not a lot of great guitar playing but the singing is on point, and it delivers. Cheers Darlin’ is astounding, alongside the few others I had heard before. there are other vocalists on the album too, who (sometimes?) help. don’t wait, to listen to this album, and to move on.
Review
I’ve heard some of these tracks, specifically The Blower’s Daughter and Delicate. they sound melancholic, acoustic, vulnerable, and intimate. the album starts with Decliate; as the name suggests it’s about a fragile kind of love but this fragility is not that we’re scared, It’s just that it’s delicate. it has an odd mix, the basses are very low, shaking my window! so I had to listen with EQ on. I love the strong lyrics and the final high registers with all the falsetto going on. it sounds like a very loud desperate whisper. he finally gives up, leaves his love, and stops this amazing song too.
Why’d you fill my sorrows
With the words you’ve borrowed
From the only place that you’ve known?
Why’d you sing Hallelujah
If it means nothing to ya?
Why’d you sing with me at all?
Volcano is more rhythmic and not all sad. it’s confrontational. it’s the next step of him leaving his love because he’s like a volcano: unpredictable, blunt, and aggressive. I like that a female sings the second verse, hinting at the fact that this misplacement is mutual. it’s a conversation: “Is that all you need?”, “But that’s all I need”.
What I am to you is not what you mean to me
You give me miles and miles of mountains
And I’ll ask for the sea
And so it is…, The Blower’s Daughter, or as I have known it for a long time, I Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You. like other songs slightly bluesy with a fiddling violing. I’ve heard this song many times before, first time from the movie Closer. for that, I can’t help but picture Jude Law singing this. I kept singing along while listening to this one.
There’s one particular element that makes this song unique: inhaling. I love how I can hear him breathe, it feels like he’s singing on the other side of the room. the song itself also breathes, with every verse and chorus; finally, we have the release with the bridge where Hannigan enters and it’s like opening a window. it is still hard but it’s not so tense anymore.
This track also depicts the next stage of their breakup, “the shorter story, no love no glory”. the last minute is also interesting, rather lost and out there, he’s just out there mumbling to himself “till I find somebody new” because after all, “life goes easy on me, most of the time”.
Cannonball is a bit more upbeat again, but the lyrics speak of the post-breakup confusion. Overall it’s a hopeful song where the character, although floating in confusion, is rather happy that he at least acknowledges his situation: “It’s not hard to grow when you know that you just don’t know”.
Still a little bit of your face I haven’t kissed
It’s interesting that even in an average song on the album we can see brilliant writing, on how you can feel so dense and heavy while also floating in doubt:
Stones taught me to fly
Love, it taught me to lie
Life, it taught me to die
So it’s not hard to fall when you float like a cannonball
Another happier song but in a thicker disguise, Older Chests talks of the passage of time and how there’s always time, and how time always changes things. or maybe it can be a depiction of denial too? he sees “older gents” and “babies” and “mamas” go through time but still he denies the passage of time: “there’s always time” but only “on my mind”.
The name also makes me think of both the chest of an older human and a very old jewel box.
Some things in life may change
And some things, they stay the same
like time. There’s always time, on my mind
Amie, finally a new instrument except the guitar and the violin. we hear “strange” sounds when he speaks of them. there goes the first tear:
Nothing unusual, nothing’s changed
Just a little older that’s all
the violins also somehow sound different! the lyrics are once again brilliant, honest, and poetic. this track also has that all-out final verse that I like.
But I’m not a miracle, And you’re not a saint
Just another soldier on the road to nowhere
Amie, come sit on my wall
And read me the story of O
Tell it like you still believe
Cheers Darlin’ sounds very different, starts with a jazzy sax and wedding noises: chatters and salutes. with every salute, he cheers his darlin’. classical guitar is also new in this one. he whispers when he says “a whisper in your ear”, the second conceptual idea I like in the album. brilliant piece. it’s a lament. every line from this one is amazing so I’m not going to quote anything, except maybe this one:
What am I darlin’?
A whisper in your ear?
A piece of your cake?
The boy you can fear?
Or your biggest mistake?
Oh what am I? What am I darlin’?
I got years to wait…
Cold Waters gives me gospel vibes. “lord can you hear me now?”, the choir that sings Hallelujah, “Am I lost?”, all addressing that context for me. they both sing every other line, so I think although they shared a past together, then separated and now live their own lives, they are both experiencing the same thing and feel equally bewildered.
I Remember outperforms my expectations! it’s very subtle, then very aggressive, and just awesome! I listened to it a few more times. the angry lines seem to be a bit overamplified, I felt some clipping. it could be my speakers. the last song ended with an inverted choir saying “Am I lost”, maybe hinting at a flashback. here we hear them express how they feel after a long time of separation, they still remember each other. he still wonders:
I wanna hear what you have to say about me
Hear if you’re gonna live without me
I wanna hear what you want
I remember December
I wanna hear what you have to say about me
Hear if you’re gonna live without me
I wanna hear, What the hell do you want?
Eskimo is weird, I don’t like it much. there’s a piece of Finnish opera in the middle for some reason. Maybe he was tired of writing this one since “Tiredness fuels empty thoughts”. finally comes Prague which is a hidden song at the end of Eskimo, the wedding in Cheers Darlin’ is maybe in Prague, Czechia and he’s packing to go there? or maybe it’s like an emotional duel and refers to how central Europe has been the place where all sorts of wars have taken place. I like the distorted vocals in the crescendo. after that moment of anger, he’s fading away. that’s all he gets by waiting.