I think this is an incredible ending to 'Virtue'. The previous song, 'North' shows the narrator's resolves to change, with lines such as 'I swear you'll never lead me away again'. However, 'Trellick Tower' is altogether more truthful, ending with the question 'Can I spend my life trying to climb you?' showing how the narrator cannot just move on as easily as they had hoped.
The way Emmy the Great manages to use the theme of religion shows the bitterness of being left by someone who found God 'Now you're high above the people/ who you used to call your equals' but also the feeling that 'something holy used to love me' showing how his religion was originally something special to her. However, the idea of 'now I'm praying but there's still no change' and 'I'll pray until the language dies' illustrates the fundamental difference between the narrator and her ex, in that to her praying will never have an effect because the she does not believe.
Finally, this song perfectly captures the feeling of wanting someone to return, lines like 'I think relics ache for when the saint had breath/ They miss the thing that changed them' uses religion, the reason for the narrator's loneliness, in order to describe that feeling, a brave and effective move.
I think this is an incredible ending to 'Virtue'. The previous song, 'North' shows the narrator's resolves to change, with lines such as 'I swear you'll never lead me away again'. However, 'Trellick Tower' is altogether more truthful, ending with the question 'Can I spend my life trying to climb you?' showing how the narrator cannot just move on as easily as they had hoped.
The way Emmy the Great manages to use the theme of religion shows the bitterness of being left by someone who found God 'Now you're high above the people/ who you used to call your equals' but also the feeling that 'something holy used to love me' showing how his religion was originally something special to her. However, the idea of 'now I'm praying but there's still no change' and 'I'll pray until the language dies' illustrates the fundamental difference between the narrator and her ex, in that to her praying will never have an effect because the she does not believe.
Finally, this song perfectly captures the feeling of wanting someone to return, lines like 'I think relics ache for when the saint had breath/ They miss the thing that changed them' uses religion, the reason for the narrator's loneliness, in order to describe that feeling, a brave and effective move.