Filed under: Music Videos | Tags: Florence + The Machine, Songs that would be great a cappella (shh)
I love this song. I mean it. Earlier this summer, I drove from Nashville to Detroit and listened to only this song for at least an hour on repeat. I’d just purchased the Eclipse soundtrack as a little present to myself (which was purposely not blogged about… I only saw the movie once, and I didn’t notice any exceptional music placement in it, aside from the Black Keys song in the opening. Nothing says grungy bar or dirty alley like a riff from the Black Keys).
So back to “Heavy In Your Arms.” Some might be annoyed by singer Florence Welch’s voice. I understand that, but, I happen to like it a lot; it’s different than mainstream pop voices (no screeching, no screaming, no breathiness). She almost has a Fiona Apple/Regina Spektor-hybrid kind of thing goin’ on. But her voice isn’t the draw for me, even though I’m not quite sure what it is, because it’s not exactly an uplifting song, it’s just insanely interesting. The effect at the beginning of the song (which actually continues throughout the song) is really eerie, and the bass line that starts around the 0:54 mark contributes to the dramatic flair and intense darkness of the song. I love the lyrics, too; She talks about being a “heavy heart to carry” and that her “love has concrete feet” and is an “iron ball wrapped around your ankle over a waterfall.” I know, dark. But it creates a certain image, right? Heavy love, A heavy heart… not in the sense in which it’s commonly used, but heavy in the sense that her love weighs her man down. It could be interpreted as baggage, but I think it’s a bit more serious than baggage. An all-consuming love that is so intense it literally weighs down the other person. So dark! But so is the song, even if you erase the lyrics. The instrumentation and background vocals set the mood; that moment at 2:59 gives me goosebumps.
The music video for this song was just released. It basically encompasses what I just described, but with an almost ghostly edge. The video also takes it a step further… she’s heavy, too (so much so that she can’t move herself). Humor your somber side and enjoy:
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