How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
The eternal son runs to the mother
She smoothes his brow and bids him
Drink from her well of hammered mist
Too long sweet lad, fog rises from the ground
The falling soot is just the dust of a shimmering gem
The black moon shines on a lake
White as a hand in the dark
She lifts the lamp to see his face
The silver ladle of his throat
The boy, the beast, and the butterfly.
The sea is a morgue, the sea is a morgue, the needle and the gun
These things float in blood that has no name
The telegraph poles are crosses on the line
Rusted pins, not enough saviours to hang
She blesses the road, the robe and the road and the noose of vine
And waits beneath the triangle
Formed by Mercury, an evening star
The fifth planet with its blistering sore
And the soaring eagle above and to the west
The boy, the beast and the butterfly.
She walks across a bridge of magpies
Her hollow tongue fills the brightness with water
And in the wink of an eye
One planet with a glittering womb
One white crow one diamond head
Big as a world, big as a world
The boy, the beast, the butterfly
Hovering
Above the sore, the blistering sore
of the fifth planet
Wait, stop, don't forget, don't forget,
How I played with you
How I kissed away your tears
Don't forget
The white mouth of the son smiles
this beautiful tunnel, a seed, a flight.
She smoothes his brow and bids him
Drink from her well of hammered mist
Too long sweet lad, fog rises from the ground
The falling soot is just the dust of a shimmering gem
The black moon shines on a lake
White as a hand in the dark
She lifts the lamp to see his face
The silver ladle of his throat
The boy, the beast, and the butterfly.
The sea is a morgue, the sea is a morgue, the needle and the gun
These things float in blood that has no name
The telegraph poles are crosses on the line
Rusted pins, not enough saviours to hang
She blesses the road, the robe and the road and the noose of vine
And waits beneath the triangle
Formed by Mercury, an evening star
The fifth planet with its blistering sore
And the soaring eagle above and to the west
The boy, the beast and the butterfly.
She walks across a bridge of magpies
Her hollow tongue fills the brightness with water
And in the wink of an eye
One planet with a glittering womb
One white crow one diamond head
Big as a world, big as a world
The boy, the beast, the butterfly
Hovering
Above the sore, the blistering sore
of the fifth planet
Wait, stop, don't forget, don't forget,
How I played with you
How I kissed away your tears
Don't forget
The white mouth of the son smiles
this beautiful tunnel, a seed, a flight.
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Magical
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
A collections of dreamlike images relating to the cinema of Russion filmmaker and theorist Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky, creator of such classics as 'Stalker' and the original 'Solaris'. A shamanic incantation - very Patti.
"Black moon shines on a lake, white as a hand in the dark" and '"Come along, sweet lad, fog rises from the ground" seem inspired by scenes from the film 'Ivan's Childhood'.
The wasteland of the Zone from 'Stalker' (a cinematic rendering of the Strugatsky Brother's novel 'Picnic Area') is referenced in the lines "The telegraph poles are crosses on the line, rusted pins, not enough saviors to hang,"
The planetary imagery evokes 'Solaris' with it's space station orbiting a mysterious and deadly planet.
"The bridge of magpies" evokes the famous Chinese myth of the cowherd and the weaver girl, where magpies form a bridge once a year to allow the lovers to meet. The myth is celebrated in the Chinese Qixi festival.