what are the songs that stay with me? i have a few old faithfuls that i return to time and again. that may always be there, waiting to provide me with comfort.
romulus & venus
the sundays’ first album
plainsong
plainsong is a vast soundscape, it beckons tears at the first beat. glistening keys plodding along as if on snow, ice, some sunny arctic land. but is it dark? windy. it sounds like a beautiful place. the irony that it’s like the end of the world (she said). the edge of the world. i love the major key, too, insisting on optimism. seeing the gorgeousness in the fragility. the love and enamor in this song is the real story, not the harsh elements. it’s because i love you so much that the world is scary, but it’s a beautiful world, because i love you so much.
this is all illustrated through a combination of lyrics and music. that optimism can’t translate without the exquisite pounding cannon. and it’s a simple progression. so simple. in C, no less. how pure can you get.
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romulus & venus is an obscure gem, a diamond in the rough. it’s a song nobody knows by a band nobody’s heard of. it was ahead of its time, a combination of synth pop and a poppy melody, albeit with a disaffected vocalist so strange as ed ka-spel. his odd voice matches the absurd story. it’s a story of pining, longing, with a lovely melodic progression. with the fake strings singing as if on some italian villa.
i can still remember you with coronets, white horses
i would run behind, you’d flash the sign, i dived just to serve you
but nighttime turned a lady to a girl again, you’d slip away
you tried to kiss my tears away, pretend there was no day to take me down
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the sundays are such a unique band, they have their own sound and world. it’s easy and light, poppy, but perhaps it is harriet’s signature voice that gives it a stamp like no other. kind of nostalgic, but more just knowing, intimate. at times your friend opening up a confidence between you and them. here’s where the story ends is classic, the hit song but really a piece of perfection. i love the tempo, it keeps moving kind of hurriedly but not too fast, with a solid strum.
can’t be sure: i feel like declaring this as my favorite because i don’t want to be too mainstream. this one is delectable. and the indian singing part. the vocals in this are so divine. i mean, harriet wheeler was such an amazing singer, very underrated. she did the Sundays and what else? and they didn’t get super huge, but they were pretty amazing. that first album is really quite perfect.
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