Comfort Comes

General CommentExcellent song. Suprised noone else has commented.

To me this song is another of Richeys powerful insights on human habit and unconscious beliefs.
For exmple, 'The difference between love and comfort, is that comfort's more reliable and true' This shows he sees love more as a need to be acknowledged by others, ie. the comfort others bring, love is more an unknown emotion that creates pain, it is of course, only the good things (comfort of being loved and loving) that we want in a relationship, not the lies and pain.

The song itself does seem like a personal cry for attention from Richeys point as well (I'm not sure if Richey wrote this exclusively, if not then I apologise)

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My InterpretationMy guess is that it's largely about Richey's view of relationships as failures (as referenced in his explanation of "Revol"). Love fades, but the shitty consolation prize of comfort remains ("brutal and mocking but always there"), and how people will hold onto unhealthy relationships, constantly cycling through anger and guilt ("a crutch for enmity's saddest glare").

Maybe the second verse describes one-night stands, or the shallow affection Richey received from groupies, threatening his overall confidence in the depths of human connections. The ephemeral theme of "comfort comes and ease me till the morning" is reminiscent of "Bag Lady," where it says, "eternity is not a sunrise."

I think the last verse is a bitter dig at marriage.

Here's a quote from an interview:

Terry Hall: "Richey didn't know how to live, how to be happy. I remember him saying he was going to be married by the end of the year, and it was like, well have you got a girlfriend Richey? I think he felt that because me and Philip were happy or because his parents were happy, then happiness would follow let's get married. There was no girlfriend, it was a bizarre kind of, if I have that then I'll be OK, it was one of the abstract things he saw."

With that in mind, I think he's rationalizing.

The husband could be choking on a resentment of his marriage, their growing distance, and his wife's emotional emptiness ("forgetting how I hate self-pity blonde"). But he resigns himself to the comfortable rut he's in, and fights to keep the conviction he's happy ("comfort comes and smooths her over").

The "beautiful dress" could be a wedding dress; the wife, now some time into the marriage, is reminiscing about love's promise, which had collapsed into drudgery ("calloused hands") and a feeling of imprisonment ("handcuffs now her pearl bracelets"); their relationship held together only by familiarity and the fear of being alone.

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General CommentThis is my favourite song by my favourite band, beautiful, brutish, powerful, intelligent and frankly it f**king rocks too!

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General CommentAren't there some lyrics missing in this before the last verse? James repeats a verse and I can't match it up with anything here :S.

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General CommentB-Side to Life Becoming A Landslide.

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