“Should You Return” by Copeland, Saturday, December 30, 2023 (repost)
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
On the first season of the Labeled Podcast, Aaron Marsh talked about his writing process for Copeland's debut album, Beneath Medicine Tree. In early 2019, he returned to the podcast to talk about the band’s latest album, Blushing. If most listeners casually picked up the two records, forgivably, they'd assume they were listening to different bands. Beneath is a guitar-driven product of late '90s/early '00s emo rock. The album has mostly an optimistic tone. Blushing is a dark electronic-influenced album with darker lyrics. Marsh told Labeled host Matt Carter that rather than writing lyrics that are easily pinned to real people, like his ex-girlfriend Paula (in the song "When Paula Sparks") he doesn't "want to write songs about [his] private life." He says, instead, "I want to write poetic songs about my private life." The band's fourth album, You Are My Sunshine, does just that. Listeners don't know the deep sense of loss-- if there is one--that inspired this album. Instead, we are invited to think about how we are left to interpret the band's lyrics. Today, we will take another look at Copeland's masterpiece, discussing the neediness in the opening track, "Should You Return."
THERE'S NOTHING LEFT TO DO BUT WASTE MY TIME. A Copeland song isn't merely recorded. It's a composed piece of music that has layers of production. Production is overseen by the frontman, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, Aaron Marsh. Copeland's fourth album, You Are My Sunshine, seems to be the biggest shift in the band's sound. Bryan Laurenson's lead guitars are a layer to the band's keyboard/ synthesizer sound. Listeners won't find the 1940 Jimmie Davis/Charlie Mitchell song on the album. The song does appear on their Grey ManEP, however. The theme of the lyrics of "You Are My Sunshine," though--"you make me happy when skies are grey" and "please don't take my sunshine away"--can be felt at times throughout Copeland's fourth album, as if the short old-time country song is a ghost haunting the album. "Should You Return," like every track on the album, has a hypnotizing effect, pulling the listener into their own thoughts rather than thinking about the music itself. I had to focus very hard to read the lyrics of "Should You Return" because my mind wandered, and I couldn't help but hum the song. But, the experience of reading only the lyrics (after a few attempts of being lulled by the melody of the song), left me sad. The question posed by the song is left unanswered.
BUT IF YOU'RE UNHAPPY STILL, I WILL BE WAITING ON A LINE. Copeland released official music videos for most of the songs on You Are My Sunshine. Most of them are as banal as the mood you have to be in to enjoy this album. The video for "Should You Return" focuses on guitarist Bryan Laurenson. In the video, he has lost his girlfriend, and the story is told using stop-motion animation with photographs as well as actual video. At the end of the video, Laurenson falls off a cliff only to wake up to discover that the ex-girlfriend is actually looking at an old photo album. She sees Laurenson reaching for her, but she promptly shuts the cover and walks away. The lyrics depict loss. The singer is complete but for one piece he's missing, the one he loves. Yet, the one he loves is toxic for him: "a love to make it hurt." The song finds the singer at a point of loss in which he wishes for something new to have and then to lose as if to feel the pain even deeper. Yet, the song ends "hanging on a line, should [the listener] return." The music makes us believe that maybe there will be a Hollywood ending. Maybe, like Scarlet from Gone with the Wind, we can say, "After all, tomorrow is another day." The music of Copeland often deals with the bleak. But, other than Blushing and parts of Eat, Sleep, Repeat, the band can make us leave the record feeling rejuvenated. Ultimately, we have to heal from our losses. We can't hang on the line forever. But "Should You Return" is a song to wallow in the pain for a bit.
Before " Shape of You ," Ed Sheeran was known primarily as a singer-songwriter. His albums + and X took clear influence from The Beatles , Carole King , Elton John , James Taylor , and the ballad writers of yesteryear. But he had a knack for throwing in a few rap bars along the way. With every record, Sheeran gained more acclaim. His sophomore record produced the mega Billboard #2 hit , " Thinking Out Loud ," which won two Grammys including Song of the Year. The final single from the album, " Photograph " was written in collaboration with Snow Patrol 's Johnny McDaid . Sheeran drew inspiration from his long distance relationship with singer/songwriter Nina Nesbitt (the featured musician on Kodaline ’s acoustic version of “Brand New Day” ). The two spent five months apart. They would eventually break up, but the song remains a gem on Sheeran's second best-selling record. LOVING CAN HURT . "Photograph" was the song that introduced m
When I was a Christian teenager, a book started circulating in my church youth group. Joshua Harris wrote about youth with wisdom and authority that seemed logical and categorical for every situation to the young women who read I Kissed Dating Goodbye . The book’s thesis argued that dating was a worldly alternative to the more purposeful Christian concept of courtship. Dating fueled erotic passions, which must be saved for a heterosexual marriage. Dating is casual, even preteens dates. Courtship was about vetting a marriage partner and would happen in the late teen years or early adulthood. YOU THINK I'M PRETTY WITHOUT ANY MAKEUP ON . Josh Harris’s I Kissed Dating Goodbye was part of a movement I’ve written about a lot: purity culture. How much this movement influenced young Katy Hudson, a pastor’s daughter in Southern California, touring with a slew of Christian rockers on the heels of her debut, self-titled album , I can only speculate what went through the 17-year-old star’s
I've talked about how Carrie & Lowell , Sufjan Steven 's 2015 masterpiece, is a quintessential portrait of dealing with grief and forgiveness when I wrote about the first two tracks, " Death with Dignity ," and " Should Have Known Better ." By the third track on the record, " All of Me Wants All of You ," explores grief in a different way from the previous two tracks. As with most songs on the album, "All of Me" appears to be deeply personal to the artist. But being personal doesn't stop this track's language from being the most obscured with allusions to geography and possibly an allegory from a little-known Spanish play. ALL OF ME THINKS LESS OF YOU. There's a debate on Lyrics Genius about the meaning of this song, especially surrounding the identity of the only other character mentioned by name in this song, Manelich. Is he the one the song is about? Stevens has written vaguely about homosexual attraction throughout
Comments
Post a Comment