Torchglow

At the end of my post yesterday I said "Candlelight" is the happiest song on the album.  That's because it's a much less angsty version of Mmhmm's song "The One I'm Waiting For."  Or there's parallels, at least.  Musically, "Candlelight" incorporates aspects of Swing (heavy syncopation) and maybe some steel drum.  It sounds like steel drum?  Anyway, that gives it a sort of summer vacation on the beach in California feel in some places.  There also seems to be heavier use of acoustic guitars, with electric guitars using much less distortion.  All of these pep up the feel of the song.  Then there's the lyrics, which I'll discuss after you've had a chance to peruse them yourself.

I should also point out that we've come upon the first instance of an interesting method Relient K employed on this album.  Several songs on the album have a tailing track that serves as an afterthought or a brief musical reprise.  I've included the lyrics of "Flare" below.  For the most part, I consider these tracks as part of the totality of the song that precedes them, and for that reason I'll be putting them up with their respective songs as I have today.


Candlelight
(lyrics by Matthew Thiessen and Matthew Hoopes)

To know her is to love her
I'm goin' undercover
To catch a glimpse but not get caught.
But to see her could be worse
If I don't get my head straight first—
On second though I guess I'll not.

She's almost brighter than the sun
Seems to me to be unfair
When you consider everyone
Who pales when they compare
When they compare

Can't hold a candle to her
'Cause all the moths get in the way
And they'll begin to chew her
Entire attire until it frays
For she outshines anyone who ever might
Dare to bask in the same candlelight

Oh please don't seat us in the back
With all the insects and the trash
She is a lady I'm a tramp
Collecting stares from pairs close by
Then flutters in the butterfly
You're just the moth drawn to the lamp

She's like an ancient artifact
Something you're lucky to have found
She'll pinch the nerves in all the necks
As she turns those heads around
Those heads around


Can't hold a candle to her
'Cause all the moths get in the way
And they'll begin to chew her
Entire attire until it frays
For she outshines anyone who ever might
Dare to bask in the same candlelight
Who may dare to bask in the same candlelight

She's almost brighter than the sun
Seems to me to be unfair
When you consider everyone
Who pales when they compare
When they compare


Can't hold a candle to her
'Cause all the moths get in the way
And they'll begin to chew her
Entire attire until it frays
For she outshines anyone who ever might
Dare to bask in the same candlelight
In the same candlelight

Flare
(lyrics by Matthew Thiessen)


A solar flare
Shines through her hair
It's so unfair
When you compare
The one who's fairest of the fair
x2

----

This song is pretty clearly talking about the positive qualities of the woman behind the album.  With this as subject matter it's interesting that this should be the happiest song on the album.  If Thiessen was your typical rock-oriented heartbroken songwriter, or even approaching this relationship and its end with the level of maturity he demonstrated previously in his music (songs like "From End to End," "Overthinking," and "Which to Bury, Us or the Hatchet?" come to mind), we wouldn't be getting a song about a beautiful woman.  But we are, and the fact that we are is foreshadowed by the previous song, about how she "and life remain beautiful."

I don't have a lot to say about the writing here.  It all adds up to a positive picture of the woman as superlative, to the point that it's unfair to compare other people to her.  Most of the wordplay comes in metaphors, and playing with the concept of "candlelight" with moths, their relatives butterflies, and then in the afterthought track the hugeification of something as small as candlelight into a solar flare.

I take note that by the end of this, we're four tracks in out of fifteen, ten minutes out of a forty-two minute album, and we haven't encountered any real harsh sentiments from our frontman.  He may not be forgetting, but he's also not slowing down.

As usual, I suggest you go take a listen to this song.  It's a pretty good example of the evolution of Relient K's sound, infusing a few more esoteric elements into the core of their musical presentation.  I know this blog post is pretty short compared to the previous two, but again I don't have much to say about "Candlelight."

I probably will have a lot to say about the next song, though.  See ya then!