Memories Of A Colour Battle Round 3

[paul-pgss]

The track I'll Be Crying For You has fallen off in the second round. Now we go on with round three.

[lori glory]

oehh.

[blue]

Soon After Christmas! Please!!

And who voted for 'Alone at Night'?!!

[RobB]

I'm gonna vote for Mr. Bean.

[paul-pgss]

No suprises here. Still voting for He Watches Her From Behind.

I can't believe you're voting off Soon After Christmas, Beth. That songs needs to be played right after Alone At Night.

[blue]

I know a lot of people love it Paul, but for some reason it just grates on me - it's too sugary, but very knowing in a sort of unpleasant way at the same time. The line that best illustrates it for me is 'I wanted to write songs about how we're walking in the snow.' There's something saccharine about it on the surface, but there's also an undertone of sneering that I find really off-putting. Normally Stina does that sweet-on-the-surface/bitter underneath thing so brilliantly that it could almost be described as her forte, but in this song I think she just goes too far with both sentiments.

Maybe I'm just weird.

[sound world]

I know what you mean Elizabeth,but that song is a masterpiece of its genre .There's such a poise and space about it, and the way the melody line is built and the musical tension held and released is brilliant.That's why I love it,but it also reminds me of teenage passions-saccharine and lovelorn etc. I'm sure Stina wrote it as a teenager.
I can't see what's sneering about that line? Can you explain?

[blue]

There's a sort of deliberate self-consciousness in the writing of that line, or at least it strikes me as such. Hard to explain, but it's like .... it's the difference between the narrator speaking, and the writer. The writer is making fun of the narrator, which can be an amusing and witty thing to do as a writer, but it feels like there's an unpleasant kind of smirk to it. Something that's commenting a little too loudly about the way personal experience, for artists, inevitably becomes fodder for the creative mechanism, and the way some artists seek out certain experiences for that very reason.

It's clever, what she does with that line: but it's a cold sort of technical cleverness, with a sneer behind it. I guess I feel antipathy toward the attitude of the writer in this song, more than anything. And words are the most important part of a song to me, so if they repel me, it probably wouldn't matter how pretty the music was.

[sound world]

I don't hear it like that,though I see what you mean.
I suppose I hear it more like...she'd love to be able to be in the relationship so she can express her love through creation,such as songs about moments like walking together through the snow;but the relationship ain't happening.'There's no snow this winter'.She's got unrequited love.It's 'not enough' but 'its too much'.
The writing of the songs would be one of her ways of expressing her love,but...she can't.

[wirbel]

The line that best illustrates it for me is 'I wanted to write songs about how we're walking in the snow.'

Funny, it's that line that I really like most about that song; it expresses so well how empty the streets can feel on a dark winters day. And then it's even lonelier when you have to walk those streets alone. This song is one of my favourites of this album

[sound world]

Me too Wirbel,I think that line's really central...and very sad.I think she's feeling sorry for herself,actually

[paul-pgss]

I think she's feeling sorry for herself,actually

I think that that's the most accurate way of describing that line and the way she sings it.

[Franck]

Can't vote anymore here either, but I'd say : Alan Bean !

[gerryuk]

I know a lot of people love it Paul, but for some reason it just grates on me - it's too sugary, but very knowing in a sort of unpleasant way at the same time. The line that best illustrates it for me is 'I wanted to write songs about how we're walking in the snow.' There's something saccharine about it on the surface, but there's also an undertone of sneering that I find really off-putting. Normally Stina does that sweet-on-the-surface/bitter underneath thing so brilliantly that it could almost be described as her forte, but in this song I think she just goes too far with both sentiments.

Maybe I'm just weird.

yep you are just weird

I love 'soon after christmas' & that line is brilliant, in fact the whole song lyrically is brilliant, I also use some lines from that song as one of my signatures

You?ve got me slightly disappointed
Just a bit and just enough
To keep me up another night
Waiting for another day


I love those lines.

[Chris]

See, the simple fact that "Soon after Christmas" is the only song being discussed here - and at length! - is already a reason not to kick it out.

The song lyrics remind me a lot of Aimee Manns "Stupid Thing", but more whistful, less accusing. That's what I find so wonderful about it.

You've kept me slightly disappointed,
Just a bit and just enough to
Keep me up another night
Waiting for another day

is exactly the feeling you often get on the downside of relationships, which is, maybe, what is implied by the title - Soon after Christmas. After the nice, sugary, sweet presents, lets be happy etc. Christmas experience all you have left is the drab, dull slide into winter. That's what got me first - the title. And you can hook a hole string of connotations and interpretations on that, if you want - being disappointed by presents etc.

But there you have it again, interpret it which way you want you can never be absolutely sure you won't have got it completely wrong.

And then, who cares? After all, it's your truth, your beauty, your sadness.

Chris