“Come with me to a place afar, where the sun is just another star” / ‘My Heart’ by Lily
Many relationship songs seem to exist as a backdrop to drinking. For two, in the case of a couple. For a group, if exes are being discussed. There may be a wine – a cask perhaps – that goes with polyamory, too. And then there’s music for the wistful single, calling for a liquor that lingers.
If you’ve experienced counselling or read any books in that arena you may have come across the phrase “listening to the bass-line”. It’s a neat way of saying pay attention to what can be found underneath the words. And in the case of this new piece by Lily, the play between her words and the low end is captivating.
“… Take my eyes I cannot see, now everything looks dark to me. Only YOU can set me free, it’s in YOUR arms I long to be again …”
For the first minute or so the bass accompaniment to Lily’s vocals and piano is effective, unsurprising. Then it develops a life of its own, supporting her expressiveness with its own perfectly phrased and placed notes. In a romcom, they’d be the smart friend whose eyebrows say so much, their own love life in chaos but with empathy for their pal.
Every musical choice in this song is equally adept. Dignified keys, a touch of Nick Drake in the cello, and a sublime moment which is probably all Lily’s voice but I swear feels like searing guitar as she holds a note delivering lacerated emotion with tender power.
“… Take MY HEART it’s dead and cold, tear my breast as I get old. It’s like my sorrow’s still untold, and still as if my soul’s been sold again …”
Billie Reid’s words deliver – “Come with me to a place afar, where the sun is just another star” continues to toy with me, optimism and meh all in one Easter egg of line. Lily wears the lyric with honesty, bringing alive that tension between badda-bing and things gone bad. All is perfectly placed in a palette of muted shades that in its own way is at least as dramatic as a Meat Loaf song, minus the bombast. The heart that hurts has no spare fuel for stagey dynamics. It’s reflecting, recuperating, rediscovering what it takes to get by one day after another. The big comeback number can wait for some other time.
Charlie Reynolds