Spiralling

I love the version of this, along with "If I Could" and "My Heart...So Blue", with Andrew Poppy's orchestral arrangement. Those 3 songs on the "Two-Ring CIrcus" are just incredible. It was really the first I started getting into alternative music in the late 80's. I remember first hearing in college where a friend of mine was playing music while shooting baskets. Anyway, not that anyone really cares about that. Very powerful and emotional song.

I adore this song too, not just for the orchestral arrangement and the singing, but also for the ambiguity in the lyrics. It's obviously about a broken-hearted person who has lost the love of his life There is some cautious optimism that things might get better, 'I'm going to mend this heart inside you've broken, it's just a matter of time', and then at the end is that ethereal and curiously jaunty 'Safety in Numbers' chant (lyrics below), which seems to be about committing suicide. It's almost as if the person has suddenly thought 'f**k it!' and decided not to go through the long painful task of pulling himself up by the bootstraps and taken the easy way out.

Show me the way They say safety in numbers I lift up my eyes to the sky And imagine a crowd

Of hearts that surround me And give the me courage to die Were you to weep And lie at my feet

Then you'd wash all my troubles away And imagine the host Of angels around me That give me the courage to die

They find it very hard to live without them. They're very hurt. This loss seems to have badly damaged their life and mental state. "No return, I keep reminding myself" it is what they want but they know things can't go back to the way they were. They still hold onto the hope that as time passes, things might get better and that they might move on. For a while, there are just instrumentals and no singing, then the "safety in numbers" part kicks in. This probably means time went on, things didn't get better, and they just decided to end it. "Then you'd wash all my troubles away" I think means having this person in their life used to help them with their troubles and made them feel better...

"Spiralling" and "Always" are the Erasure songs I've listened to the most. One of the reasons I listened to this a lot is that it is painfully relatable. In some other versions of the song, the "safety in numbers" part is omitted (that part is missing even in this page...), I can see why but I still think it butchers the song and its story and meaning. It is okay to not feel okay. It is okay to love and value someone.