Driving a 100 miles a day gives you plenty of radio time. With increased exposure to music, combined with my propensity towards aural learning, means I get Last Song Syndrome a lot. It's generally not unpleasant.
However, some days, it becomes more than pleasant. Some days it takes over your life, hits you just there, and leaves you gasping for breath. Some days it becomes your personal soundtrack, and you wonder if the music is the message you've been looking for.
"I know there's something in the wake of your smile.
I get a notion from the look in your eyes, yea.
You've built a love but that love falls apart.
Your little piece of heaven turns too dark."
- Listen to Your Heart, DHT and Edmee
I'm not much of a Roxette fan. I think the female lead for Roxette sounds way too harsh for their rendition of "Listen to Your Heart", and I don't think the way Roxette oversynthesizes their music does justice to the song.
I first heard the DHL version a day ago. Today, at 7 am, on my way to class, I heard it again. I heard it one last time at 8 pm, on the way back from classes. Each time, the raw simplicity of piano + voice left me breathless. There's a raw honest simplicity in music that dares to use rests in music as an invitation to fill the music with my own thoughts and personal experiences.
It is, however, the voice that truly carried the song. Clean, clear, powerful, yet so very...real. As if the song wasn't really sung and broadcast on radio, but sung by a dear friend, right beside me.
I swear, I even identified the friend. And as I named the friend, the voice changed again, and I heard in the song another friend's voice. Then another. Then another.
They all sang together, and magically blended together, for the voice in the song was the song of EveryWoman. I found myself missing these friends in Singapore terribly. The names I ran through weren't the people I had expected to miss, but I did. Even as the song ended, the feeling of loss remained.
Your mind may play tricks on you, but your heart always knows who it misses.
4 comments:
Saint Etienne! 'The Milk Bottle Symphony', 'Side Streets' et al.
Ah, but if you think it quite fun, you may want to re-visit that post (below),
http://commentarysingapore.blogspot.com/2005/10/suspects-and-their-lawyers.html
For if you were only quite the lawyer you ought to be, you would have done a twist on Mr Wang, instead of leaving it to me to .....
lee hsien tau
I think you should read Mr Wang's post's comments more carefully. I -did- respond to him.
you should try the Roxette's Abbey Road acoustic version of the Listen to Your Heart. Is beautiful..
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