I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Brit indie artists Guillemots (sometimes written as gUiLLeMoTs), for half a dozen years.
Flyte Dangerfield’s voice (what a name!) has extraordinary qualities. He can project dreamy, hypnotic melodies time after time, no matter what quality of work he’s performing.
And there, for me, is the rub.
Over the years some of the band’s work has been – to my ears – problematic.
However I have fallen in love.
While having a trawl through my music library recently, I came across the stunning track ‘If The World Ends’, from the Guillemots’ debut album ‘Through The Windowpane’.
I’d forgotten just how good this track is.
The way the lilting tempo slowly lifts the melody, and Flyte’s voice, to an emotional peak had, inexplicably, slipped out of my head.
I have listened to If The World Ends eight times today.
I am in love with it.
It is beautiful.
I don’t care what anyone else thinks.
This is beautiful.
A painfully slow start.
A wave of emotion to finish.
And I love it.
I’ll put the lyrics below the video, because they are a story in themselves.
Lyrics:
I just about managed to forget you when you appear in a dream
And you’re even more beautiful there than I remember you being
So I’ve come to decide fate is telling you to not go
And considering this, so I want you to know
If the world ends, I hope you’re here with me
Think we could laugh just enough to not die in pain
If the world ends, it won’t finish you
You’re not the type they can capture
You flit like a fly catcher, they can’t pin you down
Can’t pin you down
In my dream you’re playing with buckets of sand
And water was running through both of your hands
And I don’t think I ever heard you speaking
‘Cause I was too wrapped up in the dream I was dreaming
So if the world ends, I hope you’re by my side
I don’t think with you here, it will be too much pain
And when you cry, darling, I wish you’d feel my love
Your heart is way beyond capture
Flitting like a fly catcher, they can’t pin you down
Whoa, they can’t pin you down
Can’t pin you down
Can’t pin you down
Can’t pin you down
gUiLLeMoTs