Yesterday I started my journey through Relient K's album Forget and Not Slow Down, and since I have the time, I'm jumping right into the next song. In fact, I'm not even going to give you more context before I give you the lyrics. Here's the second song of my favorite album ever. Feel free to give it a listen while you read the lyrics. It'll help, I think.
I Don't Need a Soul
(lyrics by Matthew Thiessen)
I listen to the sirens as they sing me back to sleep
And pray that no one's seriously hurt.
Feels like everything is dying at the pivot point of me
I listen to the sirens tell me things could still be worse.
'Cause if you close your eyes and listen close
You can hear the chapter close
And it's already bound in better clothes
And you'll like the way this story goes
'Cause the sun still burns the shadows out
And there's nothing to complain about now.
'Cause if this was our destiny I'd treasure the fact
And I'd give you what's left of me if I'd held back
But I don't a soul
No I don't need a soul to hold
Without you I'm still whole
You and life remain beautiful
You and life remain beautiful
Departing from the hospital
The news shows on your face too well
You're trying not to cough at all
It hurts
All options are exhausted
All you numbered days are numbered small
I miss you now I loved you
And I know things could still be worse.
But if you close your eyes and listen close
You can hear the chapter close
And it's already bound in better clothes
And you'll like the way this story goes
'Cause the sun still burns the shadows out
And there's nothing to complain about now
'Cause if this was our destiny I'd treasure the fact
And I'd give you what's left of me if I'd held back
But I don't need a soul
Oh I don't need a soul to hold
Without you I'm still whole
You and life remain beautiful
You and life remain beautiful
You and life remain beautiful
If you close your eyes and listen close
You can hear the chapter close.
And it's already bound in better clothes
And you'll like the way this story goes
'Cause the sun sun still burns the shadows out
And there's nothing to complain about now
Yeah I don't need a soul
No I don't need a soul to hold
Without you I'm still whole
You and life remain beautiful
Yeh I don't need a soul
I don't need a soul to hold
Without you I'm still whole
You and life remain beautiful
You and life remain beautiful
You and life remain beautiful.
----
With this song, Thiessen actually starts talking about what's going on with him, and he essentially says, "It's bad, but it's okay." The first verse has him listening to the vehicles of emergency responders—with the allusion sitting there to the mythological creatures whose voices are not warnings but seductions. We get some good-will towards others in the verse, but the wording, performance, and the next line about Thiessen as a "pivot point" shows that his thoughts, for the moment, are on himself. And while he says the literal sirens tell him things really could be worse, there is also the allusion which tweaks that line towards a meaning that maybe things couldn't actually get much worse.
Wordplay is Thiessen's thing.
I love the next bit, which I separated into it's own stanza. It's a sort of pre-chorus, and it's a strong expression of the idea I summarized earlier. A chapter in his life (his relationship with the lady) is ending, but life goes on and the world still does what it does. "There's nothing to complain about."
But he clarifies, moving forward, that he was committed to the relationship. Incidentally, he's also committing to its end. Because he can live without her. And once again, here in the chorus, we have Thiessen's wordplay. Because the statement "I don't need a soul" has a pretty strong metaphysical meaning, which is shifted by the addition "to hold" into a different strong statement about his metaphysical makeup as a person.
Interestingly, at the end of the chorus Thiessen feels the need to repeat the line "you and life remain beautiful." I think this is to keep that message clear. It's not "all good" but it's going to be okay. It has another effect: it lets us know that he still cares about this woman, and he's not really bitter with her.
The second verse seems to be a separate scenario from the one Thiessen has experienced, and I speculate that here he is drawing out a metaphor. In some ways, the end of the relationship is like the death of a person, but what Thiessen is going for here is that "things could still be worse," as he repeats at the end of the verse.
Then, the return to the poignant pre-chorus, setting himself back on course with his positive outlook. He's making to sure to keep that shiny spring in his step that he mentioned in the first song, but he's also dropping hints, hints enough to see his mind and heart. Now, there's the repetition of a very similar sound in this pre-chorus I'm gushing over. It's "close." There's closing eyes, listening closely, closing chapters, and better clothes. I can only say this is intentional, and it sound a lot better than it looks. It feels like the end, I guess.
Thiessen returns to this again after another chorus, with a filter over his voice and a different style changing the timber of what he says. In terms of poetry this sort of repetition would be pretty much like whacking the reader in the face with your point, but in writing songs it works a little differently. It's got a hook, it's got an aesthetic value, and it causes you to remember.
Hey man, light still works. It's not the end of the world, just you and me.
Oh wait, that's from a song later in the album.
This song isn't really much of a downer, and the next song definitely isn't. Tune into tomorrow to hear my thoughts on "Candlelight," probably the happiest song on the album both in musical quality and lyrical content.
Till then, peace out.
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