Laura Marling ft. Marcus Mumford - Blackberry Stone

Some background info: Laura used to date Charlie Fink, and his band, Noah and the Whale, produced her first album, Alas, I Cannot Swim. Laura and Charlie broke up shortly after, and Noah and the Whale wrote their new album, The First Days of Spring, which eloquently documents Charlie's heartbreak. Laura then teamed up with a new band, Mumford & Sons, to produce her new album, I Speak Because I Can, which includes this rebuttal to one of Charlie's mournful compositions, Hold My Hand as I'm Lowered. Oh, by the way, she's been dating Marcus Mumford since she teamed up with his band, and the line, But I whisper that I love this man, now and for forever, is in reference to him. These two are my power couple; if they were to break up, I think I would be more upset than the both of them combined.

 

"Well I own this field, and I wrote this sky
And I have no reason to reason with you

I'd be sad that I never held your hand as you were lowered, 
But I understand that I'd never let it go
I'd be sad that I never held your hand as you were lowered, 
But I understand that the world does what it does

And you never did learn to let the little things go
And you never did learn to let me be
And you never did learn to let little people grow
And you never did learn how to see

But I whisper that I love this man, now and for forever 
To your soul as it floats out of the window
To the world that you turned your back on
To the world that never really let you be"

Meeting Spanish Banks

The sand scolds my soles.
I run to the water, not for
the fun, but from the
anger of my burning feet
and I meet the cold ocean
with a slight sigh of relief and
I breathe for just a brief
moment, but the thick
salty smell of rotting
seaweed invades my lungs.

I trudge through the

hell-maze of mud, rocks, and shells,

from oozing to slipping to paining

and wonder why I came to this cold ocean.

The sun seems a little too hot

yet, the breeze a little too cold

and as I scrunch my face

to darken the bright light of the sky,

I see him.

A little boy.

A little too fat, a little too pale,

a little too bundled up for such a scorching day,

and a little too timid as he

slowly, tentatively tiptoes towards the mud.

"No," he says, "I won't go!"

And I reluctantly show him a smile

so he knows it's OK.

"You bet it's fun to get

your feet dirty and wet,"

I say through the sweat of my own regret,

"don't be upset, just let the

slime slip-slide beneath your soles,

let the mischievous fingers of the wind

tie impossible knots in your hair.

Sprint without a hint of rhyme, reason, or direction;

do it because you can.

Let the resounding sound of your feet

high-fiving the sand restart your heart

and mold your soul into a part of this

overwhelmingly astounding wide open space."

And I turn to face

my hypocritical self and

sincerely debase and erase every

trace of my misplaced negativity

as I embrace this inconceivably incredible place.

What more could I want

but more of this

crisp air frisking every inch of my form.

I feel dizzy with Disney

because as Jasmine

my eyes are open to this

whole new world taking me wonder by wonder

and as Pocahontas

I want to explore the forest's hidden pine trails,

smell, touch, taste the sun-sweet treats of this Earth,

roll in all the riches all around me,

never pausing to ponder how many

pennies they are worth.

You can't possibly put a price

on this perfect slice of heaven.

I gotta hand it to marvelous Mother Nature's

intricate architectural plan of this land,

woven so grand from

tree to cold sea, to mountain to sky.

It's finally clear to me

that the reason for our

reoccurring rain is Her pride

pouring out in salty tears for this

painfully beautiful geographical masterpiece

Forgive me, Mother, for

I have sinned.

How dare I protest and divest

the very soil with which you've

fabricated this creation.

I vow to wrest it,

wear it with pride,

let it seep in through my skin,

let it broil within my blood,

let it infest my chest

and etch a majestically proud crest into my heart.

Oh City, My City,

into you I have been pressed,

and as your guest I shall hereafter

wear my Sunday best

and when the behest of death

doth rap down my door,

I will journey west to

resign, recede, regress,

and it is in your breast that

I request to silently lay

this head to rest.

The Tallest Man on Earth - Love is All

There's something about one man, one guitar, and one spine chilling voice that gets me every time. Song meanings can be interpreted in many ways, depending on what the listener thinks the artist is trying to express, or how one attributes the lyrics and the feel of the song to the events in their own life. I've always pictured 'the current' (mentioned in the song) to be a life full of constant changes, leading in unforeseen directions, whereas 'the land' is a consistent and certain plan. The other person in the song is being thrown into 'the current' that the songwriter is able to live by, but this person drowns because their goal and comfort is on stable ground. I picture the singer to be someone who searches for love in ever-changing ways (be it many people, or just many experiences), and though he has heard that true love is the ultimate prize for any man, his 'heart has learned to kill' — he feels that it is more in his nature to move on instead of trying to stay with what he has, even if they did have a tangible future together ('future was our skin and now we don't dream anymore'). Yes, I could be totally wrong, and I would love more than anything to talk to my favorite artists about the things they've written. Either way, this song still gives me shivers every single time I listen to it.

"Well I walk upon the river like it's easier than land
Evil's in my pocket and your will is in my hand
Oh, your will is in my hand

And I'll throw it in the current that I stand upon so still
Love is all, from what I've heard, but my heart's learned to kill
Oh, mine has learned to kill

Oh, I said I could rise
From the harness of our goals
Here come the tears
But like always, I let them go
Just let them go."

Let Dreams Be Dreams?

A mirage flickers in the distant dusty desert dunes.
A far away image of my melodramatic fabrication.
A place I imagine arriving at
every hour
of every day
yet, can't screw up my courage to
'that sticking place' and make it happen.

At times it's so near, I fear if I grab it too hard

the shear strength with which I attempt to adhere

will steer it over the edge of a cliff

and down into my deep sea of somber tears.

Maybe if I just stay away,
my imagination's figment, my faultless fragment of fiction,
will remain unchanged.

Is that all it can ever be?

Or is that all I'll ever allow it to be,
waiting six-hundred and sixty miles away.
No. Fuck it. I'll go. I'll show my notions
that they are only that.
I'll set my mind on drive
and push my fears aside.

Sedit qui timuit ne non succederet.

The Latin beneath my skin reminds me not to fret.

If you get the chance to live in a fairytale,
can you stay off in Never Never Land too long?
I guess a dream is only a dream for the short time it is allotted to be.
You either wake up or it turns into a nightmare.
It's always spoiled in one way or another...

But any sentence I start is one you complete,

never an interruption, just carrying the beat.

Are we condemned to take the backseat

and succumb to defeat

only to meet at God's feet

and say, "I wonder why we didn't try."

'Cause I'd wake up every morning

and read the paper across from you

just for an excuse to be in the same

room as you for as many minutes as I possibly can.

Isn't that enough?

Maybe it's too much.

My mind and my heart are out of touch.

Perhaps if they stay as such

the restless wandering eyes of my soul will never meet reality;

they may only ever be able to see

a soft sultry scintillating and unceasingly inaccessible fantasy.

The Tallest Man on Earth - King of Spain

Listened to his music before some new found fabulous friends took me to his concert at the Rickshaw Theater and developed a crush. Attended his concert and fell madly in love. He will always be the tallest man in my eyes.

"I never knew I was a lover,

just 'cause I steal the things you hide,

just 'cause I focus while were dancing,

just 'cause I offered you a ride.

Still I am not from Barcelona,

no, I am not even from Madrid;

I am a native of the North Pole

and I could mess up any kid."

A Blank Page

I stare at this blank page

and it stares right back at me.

Both it and my mind

unblinking, unmoving, not thinking,

just watching, waiting, wondering why

one person possess so many of my thoughts...

There ought to be a reason why

these pages stay white until your

light floods the night in my head,

a reason why I would fight

with ardor and might to keep you safe

and do you right,

a reason why my mood leaps into flight

and stays bright

whenever you enter my sight,

a reason why the touch of your skin,

so soft, sends me soaring through sensual skies,

a reason why I know you'd never leave my side.

People say I'm gonna fall, but

really, I'm just enthralled with

the ease in which you make me smile,

the ease in which something as simple

as the smell of your sweater

erases my fears, makes everything better,

forges a river from my brain

to my hand

to my pen

to this blank page,

now filled with letters.

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

Already on a music roll... Might as well go for a hat trick.

There are many more versions out there, but I picked this one because I get the same feeling listening to and watching it that I did when I was at their live shows. Sometimes I get too many shivers and have to pause it, especially when Country Winston starts a playin'.

"But man is a giddy thing. Oh man is a giddy thing.

Love it will not betray you dismay or enslave you,

It will set you free.

Be more like the man you were made to be. 

There is a design an alignment a cry 

of my heart to see the beauty of love as it was made to be."

The Trews - Sing Your Heart Out

These boys are from Nova Scotia, wOOt! And this is one of my favorite songs to play.

"On a night like this, 

life can change with a kiss 

if you don't second guess

and you go with it.

And you sing your heart out,

sing your heart out,

drive them blues away.

Sing your heart out,

sing your heart out,

you've got more to say."

Adele - Hometown Glory

"I like it in the city when two worlds collide; get the people and the government, everybody taking different sides. Shows that we ain't gonna stand shit, shows that we are united, shows that we ain't gonna take it. Shows that we ain't gonna stand shit, shows that we are united."