sO i made this wallpaper a while back River's my favourite in Liberman no wait i can't decide between River and Willows ahhhhHhhHhhhH

[ fairweather friend, rabbits on the run ; 2011 ]

just to make things clear, i like both the first and second version. the first actually has prettier lyrics, to me, but i don’t think Carlton’s final choice of lyrics was a bad idea. this is the song i listened to on loop ( along with Dear California ) for three days straight.

Fairweather Friend, as stated by Carlton, is about betrayal. i link this, for some reason, to the book Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.

( to digress a little, it’s a very beautiful book. i read it thrice. i am forever indebted to the acquaintance / friend who recommended it to me; i never did get the chance to thank her. it’s dystopian fiction, by the way. )

it particularly reminds me of the relationship between Arthur and Victoria ( i’m referring to the characters without context, so you can skip this part ). i cried when i read the chapter which was supposed to contain a few excerpts from Dear V. i don’t really know why; i haven’t been through anything like that ( that would be virtually impossible ), but i guess i am enough of a loner to know what it feels like. for the record, i just like talking to different people, but unfortunately that’s not how it works.

i cried when i read that chapter, i really did. i just sat there and cried. it’s one of those inexplicable things that you do. i have never cried as much over a book, i swear. it’s one of the main why i love Station Eleven so much — Mandel has given each and every one of her characters a story, a history. Arthur and Victoria’s story is especially painful; childhood friends eventually drifted apart. it happens, this drifting. we try to stop it, try to talk, but it never works. 

magical thinking gets us by. Carlton talks a little about believing — is it true that if you refuse to believe something, it won’t be true in ‘your’ reality? if we pretend that everything is magically okay, does that make everything okay? it’s one of the lines i love most from this album. it raises so many questions about the way we see things; do we all see them in a positive light, do we all keep on hoping, just for the sake of not breaking down? we gotta get by, somehow.

the character in Fairweather Friend is in denial, i think. he / she / they tries / try to look at things from a different angle — what if the ‘you’ in the song didn’t actually mean it? what if he / she / they himself / herself / themself didn’t mean it? both of them probably feel equally as bad about whatever happened, but one of them has chosen to ignore what’s happened while the other… the other refuses to let go. 

the piano and violin ( is it a violin? i never did learn how to recognise instruments well ) is a perfect mix. i’m happy listening to the instrumental by itself. it gives off the bittersweet feel Fairweather Friend has.

my favourite from Rabbits would be a very difficult tie between this and Dear California. both are beautiful in some unexplainable way, Fairweather Friend devastatingly so. we gotta have something to get us by. sometimes it’s the very act of waking up every day and hoping for whatever you hope for to happen that keeps you going, days blurring into weeks, weeks stretching into months, months dragging into years. there are certain qualities of light that blur the years.

( twenty points to your House if you know / can guess where that last line is from. )

i actually desperately want to write some sort of backstory for Fairweather Friend, but i’m stuck. i’m so stuck, and i don’t know why. 

this entire song makes me think about a lot of i don’t knows.

but i love it anyway.

[ i don’t want to be a bride, rabbits on the run ; 2011 ]

this song is so me. except i couldn’t care less about romantic relationships at the moment — but that’s not the point. i fell in love with all the imagery in this song first. Carlton has mentioned that the lyrics were the hardest part for I Don’t Want To Be A Bride. i think it sort of compensates for the really simple but still pretty melody ( i learnt the entire thing in three days. almost by heart. and take note that my piano prac is... not good. )

perhaps Carlton went a little... overboard with the title. the entire song talks about spending time with a partner till the end of time itself, except for that one line. but i don’t mind, actually. it fully shatters the stereotype that a couple has to get married to prove their love. i love that. society has influenced so many people that marriage equals eternity. newsflash: it doesn’t. it doesn’t matter as long as the couple is willing to stay together. forever, if they want to.

i... especially love... the bridge. that one line. 

we will live like kings under lavender skies.

it’s the image that it creates. a tiny bit of context: i can fully imagine people i know in real life doing that kind of thing. i absolutely love the scene this line of lyric produces. i would draw it if i had the ability to.

i think if i ever fall in love ( and i probably will, head over heels and over again, despite not wanting to ) i’ll have exactly this mindset. this also brings to mind the subject of same - gender marriages, actually. i’m all for ‘who cares as long as you love each other now shut up’. but many aren’t, and i think that needs to change.  ( i’m ending this before it gets political. )

needless to say, it was a case of love at first... fine, listen. for the record, i love how Skye’s fiddle replaces the ‘ah ah ah ah’ part in the bridge sometimes in live performances; it gives me chills every single time.

this is one song i’m recommending to other people.

[ carousel, rabbits on the run ; 2011 ]

i’ll begin with the very first song on Rabbits. it was the first i heard from Rabbits; that i seem to remember unusually clearly. i was obsessed with Willows for a while before this popped up on my suggested list.

Carousel... well, clearly it’s about heartbreak and getting over it. that’s what i like about this song. it encourages people to move on, that it’s okay, that there’s still hope. it isn’t just about hatred towards the said significant other or depression after the split or some sort of fiery revenge. it’s a gentle reminder that life goes on, and it’s okay, it’s alright to move on.

i once read a review somewhere where the reviewer noted the imagery in Carousel to be ‘cliché’. i don’t think so, particularly; or is it just me, because i haven’t heard that many songs like this before? i like the soft feel of the lyrics, of the words — they’re like a wise friend trying to give advice. the image of rabbits cements the thought of life going on, and time not waiting; rabbits are thought to be rather ethereal creatures in folklore. the melody is light, simple, a rabbit running through a field in the early morning light. there’s also the claps, especially at the bridge, which gives the entire song a more... wild... feel... no, not really. it gives it a slightly happier, bittersweet feel. i don’t know why, but i especially like the bridge. it’s the lyrics, i think. i think it’s the image it creates, two friends in a wooded area just after a rainstorm as the rain ceases, wet and feeling so alive, watching an owl who was woken up by the storm. ( i ended up writing a short based on this concept. i can’t believe myself sometimes. )

in the end, we all have to let go. eventually. but ‘love comes back around again’, and it’s an important thing to remember. maybe one day is fine and the next is black (ten points to your House if you get this), but one day, one day the goodness will come back and everything will be okay. it’s not the best, but okay is enough. after all, the goodness is following you. you just have to run out of the gloomy burrows, up the hill into the sunrise.

[ note ]

please note that i’m not a professional! i’m also rather young and inexperienced about life in general, and these cannot be treated as official reviews. they’re just my thoughts, and mine alone.

head here for my mini-review things

[ introduction ]

i discovered Carlton a few years back. it was an accident, really; i was on a plane and deprived of things to do, and i saw Liberman, and i thought it looked cool. a month later i wanted new music, and i decided to check her out. i’ve never regretted that choice. 

i prefer her Rabbits On The Run era and after (pre-Rabbits is a little too rock for me). i think this blog will mostly be used for my two cents on her songs — i’ve always wanted to review and just talk about some of them. eventually i may move back to pre-Rabbits songs... may.

thank you!