“Have I Always Loved You?” by Copeland, Sunday, December 26, 2021

In an interview with New Noise, Copeland's guitarist Bryan Laurenson talks about the circumstances why the band broke up in 2010. The band feared the fanbase was drying up. They were sick of touring, but after some time away, working with other projects, Copeland came back together to record 2014's Ixora. The four years away gave Copeland fans one of the best records the band has released. Building on the layered, compositional ballads from You Are My Sunshine, Copeland masterfully combines lush arrangements of guitars, pianos, odd drum beats, synths, strings, and horns with some of the most concrete love songs the band has ever released.
 

THE WHITEST DRESS I KNOW. Named after a subtropical flowering plant common in the band's home state of Florida (pictured to the left), Ixora opens calmly with the cold track "Have I Always Loved You," and the band builds a momentum that easily draws listeners along until the album's early emotional climax, "Erase," which for me, is where a casual listen of Ixora ends. The rest of the album is good, too, but not overly catchy as are the first four tracks. After "Erase," "Ordinary" slows the pace. Tracks like "Lavender" and "Like a Lie" pick it back up and are thought-provoking. The album's closing tracks feature beautiful instrumentation. But after "Erase," I'm usually emotionally spent. The first three songs on the record are love songs. I've talked about why love songs are so difficult to get right when I was talking about the sort of bland Nick Jonas album opener for Spaceman, "Don't Give Up on Us." My argument about what makes a love song good is conflict, and a lack of conflict makes a song bland. Specific conflict is better. In "Have I Always Loved You," we have a storm outside and a feeling of safety with a loved one. In "Disjointed" we have a misunderstanding that a couple is working through that is compared to the waves pulling the two under, which is actually a positive metaphor for being submerged in another person. In "I Can Make You Feel Young Again" we have a beautiful song that Marsh says (and the music video depicts) is about a mermaid tempting and dragging a man to sea. 

OUR CASTLE WILL BE HIGH ABOVE THEIR ARROWS.  On an end-of-the-year vacation to Busan to get away from the stress of teaching and being in ministry, I retreated into this album. I was with my best friend, but I was processing information that I couldn't share with him. When I listened to Copeland's Ixora, I was myself, but when I was spending time with anyone else, I had to put on a façade. I had recently started dating men, but I was trying to keep it hidden from everyone I knew, especially my friends. While I worried about the implications of being found out as an exploited "missionary teacher" in Korea, my biggest fear was that my friends, particularly my best friend, would say something spiritually profound that would cast me out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. So I kept everything to myself. On top of that feeling, the day before this trip had started, I had suffered a devastating revelation which ended  with a profound feeling of loneliness. I turned to an archaic non-GPS-based dating website. I was in a desperate state, feeling that I was going to be forever alone. And in the middle of this sickness, I started started two conversations.

Original version:

Ixora Twin version:

Original/Twin version combined:

 

Read “Have I Always Loved You?” by Copeland on Genius