Part before the second chorus (can't really call it a verse since the song barely follows the conventional verse-chorus-verse structure)
...Why so tame?
We could shoot wonder vines through younger veins
Sip slow from night's deep wells
And watch our gardens swell
Once the seeds are soaked
Wild and overgrown
You'll see heart's colours change like leaves
Oh, sweet, sweet tree, fall for me
Fall fast, fall free, fall for me...
Sad thing is, everybody who reviewed this album - from the Pitchforkmedia to a 13-year-old pimply teenager on epinions.com - talked about music and music only. Well, almost exclusively. Lyrics get little to no attention. Which is a shame, because they are bloody amazing. Take this song for instance - Auden and Snyder would be jealous. In my humble opinion - gotta remain objective, y'know - 'Ambulance' is one of the better poems about such a trivial subject as unrequited love to be ever put to music. Second "verse" - the one I just retyped - is sheer brilliance. Adebimpe is comparing love to a drug addiction ("shoot wonder vines through younger veins") and a blossoming garden ("watch our gardens swell") at the same time. Extreme, reckless, addictive, destructive pleasure is both contrasted with and complemented by life creation ("once the seeds are soaked"). Isn't that what love is, really, at least in the conventional sense of the word? Contrast continues throughout the chorus: "ambulance/accident", "screech&crash/crutch&cast", swelling gardens and falling trees, injure and healing, destruction and creating...
Part before the second chorus (can't really call it a verse since the song barely follows the conventional verse-chorus-verse structure)
...Why so tame? We could shoot wonder vines through younger veins Sip slow from night's deep wells And watch our gardens swell Once the seeds are soaked Wild and overgrown You'll see heart's colours change like leaves Oh, sweet, sweet tree, fall for me Fall fast, fall free, fall for me...
Sad thing is, everybody who reviewed this album - from the Pitchforkmedia to a 13-year-old pimply teenager on epinions.com - talked about music and music only. Well, almost exclusively. Lyrics get little to no attention. Which is a shame, because they are bloody amazing. Take this song for instance - Auden and Snyder would be jealous. In my humble opinion - gotta remain objective, y'know - 'Ambulance' is one of the better poems about such a trivial subject as unrequited love to be ever put to music. Second "verse" - the one I just retyped - is sheer brilliance. Adebimpe is comparing love to a drug addiction ("shoot wonder vines through younger veins") and a blossoming garden ("watch our gardens swell") at the same time. Extreme, reckless, addictive, destructive pleasure is both contrasted with and complemented by life creation ("once the seeds are soaked"). Isn't that what love is, really, at least in the conventional sense of the word? Contrast continues throughout the chorus: "ambulance/accident", "screech&crash/crutch&cast", swelling gardens and falling trees, injure and healing, destruction and creating...
Beautiful. Bloody beautiful.