Obsession of the Week: Pictures of You

I have a new obsession. For a person with an addictive personality, that is not to be taken lightly. When I find something I love, I latch on. My friend Jill has watched me for almost 20 years as I dive head first into everything from hobbies to people. I like to say it’s passion more than obsession. Every coin has two sides right?

Buy this album.

So less than a week ago, my friend Joni mentioned in a text to me, as she often does, that she was listening to a great song...Pictures of You by The Cure. I read her text and thought for a minute...did I know this song? Hmm...I summoned up my limited knowledge of The Cure...Mint Car...Friday I’m in Love...yeah...I know The Cure. But I couldn’t get Pictures of You in my head. When most people recommend songs, I just YouTube them, but with Joni, I know it’s a given. If she likes it, I’m probably going to like it. I went to iTunes and bought it. To be clear, I bought the version that is about 7.5 minutes long. There are a lot of them out there.

That was less than a week ago. Since that moment I have played the song over 100 times. That’s the count on my iTunes, not including God Knows How Many Times I’ve listened on my iPod. I am obsessed. How could I have missed this song in my 33 years of life? My mom definitely did her part to give me all the best of the 70’s and I hit the 90’s in my teens, but the 80’s fell in that unfortunate period of time where I was a child and my parents were...well, busy being parents. This is why we need friends of all ages. Because one day, one of those friends who WAS a teenager (the most important period of life for discovering the bountiful gift of music) during a music era you were not will text you that they are listening to a song that will change your life, feed your soul, and become your instant new favorite.

I have no choice but to write a blog about Pictures of You. Remember last week when I geeked out about Gotye’s mouth? This is gonna be like that only maybe less creepy, more dorky.

Any song that starts with chimes is bound to be magical. And that's how this one begins. Then there's this great low, lengthy, but rhythmic syncopated guitar over a basic bass line that repeats. More chimes, then the guitar line comes in again an octave higher, building the music, making it escalate. It repeats and just when you've got the idea, cue the chimes and keyboards to fill in the chords and the foundation of the music is set.

By the time Robert Smith starts singing, with his incredibly unique voice, his British accent pushing through, I was already hooked on the song. It was predictable enough that I could get into it immediately, but was still interested in what was coming. The music takes a backseat to his lyrics, which are surprisingly not that bad! I mean, listen, 80's lyrics were not known for their poetry. The 80's were known for fun! Booming economy, neon colors, materialism, pop music! So sometimes I have to put my love for words aside while listening to music from that time. (More recent music coming from the grunge angst of a no longer happily ignorant world has no excuse. Life House...what are you thinking..."it's you and me and all of the people...." geez.) But as I said, the words to THIS song are not that bad. A little repetitive, but the song calls for it.

What I like about the story he is telling is that he is so clearly reflecting back about a relationship he was in. But it is definitely in the past. He is not longing for that person or whining even. He is just reliving a memory. As a person prone to reflection, I can really get behind this idea. He kind of knows that the pictures are not real, but looking at them, he realizes all of the emotion attached to them, how they beg him back to another time. He lets himself go there, and in the process creates a great formula in the lyrics, which serve as his vehicle for going.

Smith found this picture of his wife after a fire in his home. The song is loosely inspired by it.

He begins each verse with "Remembering you..."and then follows that with an actual memory "...running soft through the night." Reflecting on the relationship in its glory. But then he punctuates it with some of his internal thoughts "You were bigger, brighter, and whiter than snow." These are things he probably never said or even thought at the time, but have been summoned by these pictures and painted with silver linings through the rose colored glasses of memory. I get that. Colors are brighter in my memories, voices are sweeter, moments I never want to forget are frozen and played in slow motion losing the nuances of the less than perfect things that might have accompanied them in their reality.

Leonardo DiCaprio's last words to Mal in the movie Inception are a perfect explanation of what a "picture" or imagination lacks that reality provides. He says to her, "I can't imagine you with all your complexity, all your perfection, all your imperfection. Look at you. You are just a shade of my real life. You're the best I can do; but I'm sorry, you are just not good enough." Smith's lyrics are proof of this sentiment. The pictures of his lost love have kept her frozen in time, bringing out only what he wants to remember, which in this song, is the best of her and them.

While Smith is singing, the guitar rhythm, keyboards, chimes, and drums keep their pace, backing off during his words, coming forward during breaks. It's a dance really, both partners are vital, neither can stand alone.

By the time the "bridge" shows up we have had a glimpse into his relationship and we get that it was pretty incredible to him. After reminiscing...the emotions are bound to surface. He can't just tell us about it anymore, he can't just recall it, he actually misses it. This is where we get the few lines of regret, remorse, and the "what might have been" element of the song. "If only I'd known of the right words, I could have held on to your heart." And it's a feeling almost everyone in the world has felt. What I love about it is that it doesn't really keep him down. He gets a little quiet in the following measures as if to give himself time to be sad, to recover, and finally to get it together. The music takes the stage to let him have these moments.

That hair.

And you think the song is going to end. You think it's going to fade out into this guitar rhythm it started with, but then the chords start changing and the music revs back up, cue chimes, and then...the anthem comes...

His declaration...his last words...a statement of clarity that says to the once beloved person of his former relationship, in case you were at all confused as to how I feel or have felt, THIS is what I want you to understand. "There was nothing in the world, that I ever wanted more, than to feel you deep in my heart! There was nothing in the world, that I ever wanted more, than to never feel the breaking apart..my pictures of you." He sings more loudly here than anywhere else in the song. More confidently. This is the take away. The declaration is made and even though what's done is done, and he is probably at peace about everything ultimately, no one likes to be misunderstood. The clarity he has in those last lines show the best of his intentions, the depth of the love he once had for someone he held so dear, shared so many memories with, and will never forget.

The guitar keeps going but begins to fade until it all comes to an inevitable but still somewhat abrupt end.

As things tend to do.