Alpha Shallows

Official lyrics from lauramarling.com:

He could fall and shake and weep, By his holy are my feet, And heart with mention the dear that may not speak, We feel tight when there is tension, And our eyes can make us weep.

And his heart was full of fire, At the man he had become, And his soul was seldom higher, With the falsities of fun, Could embrace sweet desires in moments as they pass, but He feared ever more, he saw it didn't last.

We walk up Holland Avenue, And watch the rich as they consume, That product made our hearts exude, an emptiness unrivalled by, The hunger that I could control, He'd pray up to his God that he might save their soul.

The grey in this city is too much to bear, The grey in this city is too much to bear, And I believe we are meant to be seen, And not to be understood.

And I want to be held by those arms, I want to be held by those arms.

You'll work your thumbs `till they're sore, And you'll work my heart until it's raw, And you'll call and you'll call but you'll never be told. And I'll fall and I'll fall and I'll fall, And I'll fall and I'll fall and I'll fall.

We are basic light, we are basic light.

i think it's "i want to be held by those ARMS", not eyes. amazing song, my favourite off the new album.

Such an unbelievably great sound, esp the first half.

Amazing how much she grew since "Alas"

the last two lines are we are basic LIGHT we are basic LIGHT if it was lies it would totally change the meaning of the whole song

My opinion is that the man in the song is troubled by himself and by the world around him and he's trying to find the meaning to his life, while trying to save the rest of the world. A very difficult task when your own faith is shaken raw each morning and each emotion feels like its only a passing phase. The women keeps the mans spirit up. She believes that maybe what he was doing is the answer, to not understand "the rich as they consume" because it is not part of him but to continue in his toils to try and save them. And not be too hard on his self because he has a good heart. My biggest problem is i always believe the songs about a personal experience the writter had but Laura says thats most of the time not the case in plenty of her interviews and some come from stories...

'And I believe you are meant to be seen but not to be UNDERSTOOD.'

There is so much going on in this song. I'm not sure where to begin. Some of it seems so straightforward, and other parts are more elusive, and I'm not sure how all the pieces fit together.

BRAVE NEW WORLD.

do you think she wrote it based off of the novel? didn't mean for this to be two posts but I suppose the effect's a little more dramatic now. It fits entirely in my opinion and justifies the title... the lyrics can be interpreted to support Lenina's perspective, but deals most heavily with Max and John + such... what do you all think?

john darnielle's alpha couple songs? "alpha negative," "alpha rats nest," etc. that's what i though of. beautiful anyway. i think the twist she puts on the last lines is lovely - even if the official lyrics are "basic light," there's a nice light/lies/life ambiguity there.