A DARLING LIGHT: THE SHINS "SEPTEMBER"

Saturday, March 10, 2012

It's probably sort of odd -- for someone who writes as much as I do and who loves music as I do, lyrics are not at all my focus in a song. It's the sound that pulls me in first, whether that's the three-chord smash-n-bash of my beloved garage rock, a clever melody, or an unexpected harmony that makes me smile. The immediate emotional rush of sound fits my nature, I suppose. But there are so many great song lyrics, of course; funny or thoughtful or wickedly phrased, using words as percussive elements, seamless with the music. And sometimes, I come across a song where the lyrics are just so good they appear in my head days and weeks and even years after the song is over, and remain as little floating fragments of perfectly expressed humanity, long examined and held dear.

That damned James Mercer. Not only is the leader of the Shins a near-flawless vocalist, but he's now written one of the loveliest songs I've ever heard. "September" was composed for his wife, Marisa Kula.  As he recently said at Twenty-Four Bit, "The trouble that I got in was that I told Marisa, 'This is going to be your song,' so I knew the lyrics had to be right on. I wanted it to be a diamond -- and I feel like the work paid off."


It did. A measure of a gifted writer is an ability to take something deeply personal and craft it in such a way that the words sing to the souls of strangers as well. To be able to pull from the air just the right words and phrases that express the intimacy, timelessness, and astounding random fortune of love in 3:34 minutes reminds me that Mercer is one very talented guy, and that Kula must be one amazing woman to have inspired such lyrics.

Thanks, you two.

"September" will be available on the Shins' new album, Port of Morrow, on March 20th on Amazon, iTunes, or your local record store.

"September," The Shins

Into this strange elastic world,
Pontus kindly gave up a pearl.
of his eternal stone and mud,
and ain’t she lovely,
bone and blood.
Born of the sea
a thousand miles
away from me.
A court of angels,
wards of the sun.
The future forming,
a curse undone.

Under our softly burning lamps she
takes her time
telling stories of our possible lives,
and love is the ink in the well
when her body writes.

I’ve been selfish and full of pride,
and she knows deep down there’s a little child.
But I’ve got a good side to me well,
and it’s that she loves in spite of everything else.

A song in the tree has distracted her mind.
Some other curious form of life
has made its presence to her known
and coos so gently,
soft and low.
Her shining face in a million reflections
on tiny raindrops that fall in a veil
over our city like notes from above.
It overwhelms me.
I just ain’t that tough.

It’s not that the darkness can’t touch our lives,
I know it will
in time,
but she’s no ordinary valentine
and now,
when the sun goes down, she sheds a darling light

I’ve been selfish and full of pride,
and she knows deep down there’s a little child.
But I’ve got a good side to me well,
and it’s that she loves in spite of everything else.



The Shins: “September” (b-side of “Simple Song” 7”) from Record Store Day on Vimeo.