Tags
Aqualung, Brooke Fraser, Copeland, Flags, Jeremy Enigk, Jon Foreman, life, love, Matt Hales, Memory Man, Music, MuteMath, Sara Bareilles, Spotify, struggles, The Strange and The Beautiful, Who Are We Fooling, Words and Music
I’ve been listening to Aqualung since early high school. I remember driving in my little white Toyota listening to The Strange and the Beautiful. The windows were rolled down and the music was loud. Of course, when Memory Man was released I listened to it as I explored Aspen groves in Southwest Colorado. As I began college in NYC, Words and Music was a constant companion for many late-night study sessions. About a year and a half ago, my computer was stolen-along with my entire music collection-so I haven’t listened to Aqualung since.
That is, until a few days ago.
I was trudging through hundreds of pages of billing at work and decided to add Brooke Fraser’s 2010 CD, Flags, to my Spotify playlist. When the first cords of “Who Are We Fooling” hit my ears, I stopped. Immediately after the song ended I played it again, then again, and again, and again, and again, and again. I heard a familiar voice join Brooke in brilliant melody. It was Matt Hales (from Aqualung) and together, their harmony wove in and out and lingered in the air (and in my head) long after the song was over. But the song’s content stood out to me the most.
It’s not often that you hear a beautiful song about married love. It’s even less frequent you hear lyrics in a bridge that praise everyday struggles; “Cause real love/ Is hard love/ It’s all we have/ It’s a break-neck/Train wreck/ It’s all we have.” And sticking it out together through the thick and the thin, because life’s struggles are the things that it is made of. “Together we’re one, but apart tell me Who are we fooling?”
File Next To: Copeland, Jon Foreman, Jeremy Enigk, Sara Bareilles, MuteMath
