| M. Ward – Color of Water Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I think that, as in so many of his songs, M. Ward is setting a hazy, almost mystical scene for a grand metaphor. In this instance, the departing mountaineer he describes could just be a melancholy, disaffected lover who has seen the waters of his relationship turn from green to grey. What I've discovered to be so beautiful about his poetry (and is most prominent on Transfiguration of Vincent) is his passion for cloaking the emotional rises and falls of everyday life in the scrim of foreign, often fantastical realities. Call it metaphor, call it a dreamworld, he seems to employ it here with natural ease. When he says he was "all geared up and ready to go" (and doesn't something in your stomach do a little leap when his voice cuts in after two minutes of intoxicating acoustic guitar?), maybe he's preparing himself for a longterm relationship--priming and prepping his heart to depend on a dependent. He shuts out the lights and locks the door behind him as he departs the hermetic "mountain home" of bachelorhood, while the first-blossom imagery of green water and a "sky of blue between the leaves" conjures a burgeoning love. Alas, quickly, he bows out. Why he smells trouble is unclear, but -- greyness spied ahead -- he's bounding up the mountain again before the winter frost of a chilled-over love can get the chance to nip him. |
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