“Should You Return” by Copeland (repost), Tuesday, January 9, 2024
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 Man EP, 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.
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