Let’s get this out of the way: Valentine’s Day cards are terrible.
I mean, greeting cards in general are a pretty poor mode of communication. Someone you care about is graduating, you say? What might they need…I know! How about some thick, folded paper with someone else’s words inside? Now they’ll know that you care just enough to say something nice, but not enough to think of it yourself.
But as silly as they are, cards are kind of obligatory. You can’t give someone a gift without including a card. It just feels wrong. It’s like the complimentary bread at a restaurant. It’s not the main event, but its absence makes you feel cheated.
So, getting back to Valentine’s Day, if you’re going to use someone else’s words to express your love and appreciation to a loved one, you might as well use words that are beautiful, rather than the standard parade of Hallmark clichés.
I recommend the words of Josiah Wise, who makes music underthe name serpentwithfeet. Don’t let the lack of capitalization or quirkyneglect of the space bar fool you: Josiah Wise is a poet of startlingoriginality. I think his lyrics could breathe life back into the tired andsappy world of Valentine’s Day cards.
In fact, I made some for you. Check it out:
Okay, maybe the visuals need some work. But thanks to serpentwithfeet, the words are perfect. His 2018 album, Soil, is filled with creative lyrical explorations of what it means to fall in and out of love. This track brings the album to an incredible close.
Whatmakes this a beautiful song:
1. It’s not just his lyrics, but his delivery. The wordstumble out in staccato bursts, in a style that falls somewhere betweenspoken-word poetry and a baroque recitative.
2. Having the kick drum on beats two and four (as opposed tothe normal one and three) makes it gentler somehow. A heartbeat instead of ametronome.
3. The final climax, as the backing vocals repeatedly belt out the word “heart,” is strongly reminiscent of the chorus of Bjork’s “New World,” where the vocals repeatedly belt out the word “see” over chords that are very similar.
Recommendedlistening activity:
Using sappy Valentine’s Day cards to make origami flowers.
This song was suggested by a reader. Thanks, David!