"Erase" (Acoustic Cover of Copeland) by Charles Angell, Thursday, October 28, 2021

A few Saturday afternoons circa 2015-17, I went down a rabbit-hole, looking for the best Paper Route, Anberlin, and Copeland covers on YouTube. This was long after finding artists like Tyler Ward who covered pop music. I wondered if anyone had recorded high quality covers of my favorite bands. It turns out that there were a few. These artists weren't on the level of popularity of Kurt Hugo Schneider or Boyce Avenue. I had hoped to created a cover playlist of a Copeland album, but there weren't enough high-quality covers on YouTube at the time. Charles Angell's YouTube account has 7 videos, 77 subscribers, and the singer hasn't posted anything in 3 years. From a quick Facebook search, it turns out that Angell is still active as a musician, with a new haircut and some designer rims, now under the moniker of Snarly (link to his social media presence). 

YOU'RE STILL A BREEZE UPON MY SKIN.  Of the Copeland covers, Charles Angell's version of "Erase" is one of the best. The finger-picking guitar captures part of what Copeland's original masterpiece conveys, but in other ways, the calm acoustic guitar void of the band's calculated injection of the disjointed beat on verse 3, keeps the song forlorn. Copeland's version leaves the listener wrecked. It's true; readers and listeners who are trying to catch me breaking my own rules and sneaking a second Copeland track in the same month, you caught me. Maybe Aaron Marsh has shown up more than Stephen Christian this year, given that he's often featured as a guest vocalist, though I doubt he's shown up as often as Aaron Sprinkle who has produced so much of my favorite music. Copeland's comeback album, Ixora, surprised fans when the band decided to record new music in 2014. The album was released on November 24. The songs were more concrete and often more optimistic than You Are My Sunshine, and the band delved into some mature love song-writing. But by track 4, the album takes a turn. "Erase" may be the most gut-wrenching Copeland song. It reverts to strange imagery from prior albums. Why is the singer "tasting armor"? Moreover listeners wonder if there are spiritual implications to this break up song?

SO YOU JUST COLOR ME TO GREY. When Gotye wrote "Somebody That I Use to Know," he used concrete details, like "sending a friend to collect [his] records" to describe that awful feeling when someone you loved doesn't recognize you anymore. Copeland conveys the feeling of being erased by someone, using fewer details. Marsh sings with conviction, though, stating that whatever happens now, the past is etched into him and he is etched into that other person. The song reminds me of the Bible story in Genesis in which Jacob wrestles the angel, not giving up, demanding that the angel bless him. In the same way, the singer of this song is telling his lover or possibly God that he refuses to be erased. Despite Marsh's claim that he doesn't write Christian or even spiritual songs, it's safe to say that many of his listeners interpret the song in a spiritual lens. Which brings me to my first experience listening to Ixora. I was coming off a turbulent year in my faith. I was listening to the album on New Year's Eve, 2014 on a train back from a vacation in Busan with my friend. That trip was a vacation from myself, from the broken relationships I gotten myself into. I had decided to be honest with myself since the beginning of that autumn, admitting that I was gay. But that admission came with a few months of catching up and making mistakes. Ixora was the soundtrack for me collecting my thoughts on the train, and "Erase" was a spiritual climax. I asked the question to God, "What does it mean if it's impossible to live up to your standards? Am I just damned to Hell because it's impossible to follow you?" But Marsh sings with conviction "You won't erase me / So you just color me from grey." I began to realize that my view of God as a strict rule-giver in the sky might be off. If I believed that he made me who I was, maybe he'd accept me for who I am. Maybe the truth that was in my bones, the truth that I saw, the truth of human psychology was real, and parts of the Bible were not. This freedom of belief was scary to my indoctrinated mind. But without that spark of hope, it was far scarier.

Read “Erase” by Copeland on Genius.

Copeland Original Version:

Ixora Twin version:

Ixora + Twin version combined: