One and a Half Love Songs
Well, I’m back after a whole week without Radio KRUD. A lot of it has been because of technical difficulties. But enough excuses, time to get to the music.
Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of love songs and music with that kind of slow, dreamy sound to it. So I thought that I would post one of my favorite love songs and another that’s a bit of an enigma. I suppose I’ll start with the full-fledged love song, “As I Lay Me Down” by Sophie B. Hawkins. I’ve this song liked since my middle school years, around the time it first came out. “As I Lay Me Down” is very warm and pleasant, a feeling which is comprised of Sophie B. Hawkins’s lusciously sweet singing voice and the soothing yet catchy instrumentation that builds up smoothly as the song progresses. This subtle build-up that continues through the song’s four minute length keeps the listener engaged the whole time. But if they aren’t paying attention to the very subtle changes in the song’s instrumentation then they won’t be sure what it is about the song that’s so interesting. As an example of this subtle build-up, sometimes there will be a very slight change in the percussion that will alter the overall sound of the song, but is very hard to notice as an individual element. This kind of clever composing makes me respect Sophie B. Hawkins as an artist and makes this song one of my personal favorites.
Purchase Whaler by Sophie B. Hawkins
I’m not sure whether to categorize this next song, “Tuesday Morning” by the Pogues, as a love song. It sounds like one and the chorus would give that impression, but the rest of the lyrics can be kind of bleak. When I first heard this song in my early teens and I had trouble understanding the lead singer’s strange voice, I filled in the blanks with what I thought sounded best, which meant that I made the song pleasant for myself. The exception was the first line of the third verse where it sounded like the lead singer was saying, “Turnip pastrami.”
Anyway, it would seem that this song contains lyrics about an attempted suicide (“I fell through the window / And I found that I was still breathing”) and the fear of the singer losing his lover (“Turn your face from me / I will cover myself with sorrow”). But everything seems to go back to an uncertain Tuesday morning and wishing it was Monday evening. Did the singer and the person he’s singing to have a one-night stand and he’s obsessing over her? Are they in a long-term relationship Monday evening a particularly good night for them and then things went wrong the next day? Without the help of the lyricist(s) there seems to be multiple ways to interpret this song. Either way, the song sounds very pleasant no matter what the lyrics mean to you, which is why it makes it into my playlist of love songs.
