Slow, Love, Slow

I originally did not care for the song too much. Yet reflecting more on it, and letting the music sink in, I've realized it strikes a sentimental chord with me, and I've grown to really like it.

For me, the song is about impatient love, maybe a little bit of jealousy, loneliness, unrequited love. But not exactly that - a bit more subtle. There is tension in the lyrics - perhaps the relationship is not going as deep as quickly as the protagonist desires. So the refrain "Slow, love, slow" is almost a whisper to his/her heart to be patient and wait. Endure the loneliness, the love-sickness, the worry, the heart-ache ... for "only the weak are not lonely". It's a call to faithfulness and trust in the loved one, despite the hurt. The weak, it is presumed, are not lonely because they give up quickly and move on to the next person, but in so doing, do not learn the meaning of love.

The tension, coupled with the silky-smooth melody is a beautiful contrast, and captures very well the emotions involved and the strange conflict the love-struck one feels.

The lover is infatuated with the beloved: "the deep sigh coiled around my breast, intoxicated by a major chord". What a beautiful way to describe the way one feels when one is love-struck. The tightness in the chest, the thrill, the almost electric delight. And then the question: "Do I love you, or the thought of you." Such a beautiful question - sometimes we may love someone more than we feel they are loving us back. We find ourselves asking, "why do I love this person" when they treat me so. Or maybe when we are separated from them, we pine after them with longing, but in their real presence, there may be a coldness, a barrier, something preventing us from being satisfied by that longing we felt in their absence.

I have not completely thought through the rest of the song ... I am still trying to delve into the magician thing at the beginning, and the beautiful imagery of the last verse.

I guess in sum, and especially emphasized in the song's ending with the ticks of a clock, the song is the lover's prayer to his/her heart to be patient, to let time bring love to fruition and not be too hasty, to be strong despite the confusion of feelings that he/she is experiencing.

This song will forever blow my mind.

To me, the singer sounds sinister, like a vampire or some other beautiful-seeming monster that's trying to gently lure in her prey. It seems like quite a few Nightwish albums have creepy-sexy songs like this: Whoever Brings the Night, The Siren, maybe even Nymphomaniac Fantastia if we choose to acknowledge its existence. ;-)

Is there nothing this band cannot do? Easily my favourite off the album.

But I'm eager to see where this functions in the movie. In the greater context of the album, I wonder, is this being sung to the old man as he reflects on life? Who is this for? Who is singing this?

Cannot wait for the movie, in short.

I always laugh when she says 'ice-cream-castles', because it reminds me of Candyland, lol!

This, to me, is the scene of a female vampire slowly and gently luring her lover man into her love and trap. This could be one of the stories that the man in this album read and dreamed so much about it when he was a child. He is now lying on his deadbed and recalling so many things in his life, especially his childhood.

I totally love this album and Anette's expression in most songs except for her being weak in Storytime. Still, I wonder how it would be if it were Tarja here... Not as young and sweet as it is now, instead it must be magically, mysteriously beautiful. Just my very own feeling though ...

I don't get how you guys (estelindis and Gsimenon) got vampires from this. It seems to more reference the loved ones of Tom Whitman, of who most of the album is about. The main plot of the story is that Whitman has a mental illness and has been traveling through the fantasies of his own mind to reclaim all the loved ones that he forgot, especially his daughter and old girlfriend.