She was a rose, vibrant and fair.
A joy to those around her, with love beyond compare.
Her laughter a melody, her touch like a prayer,
A light that shone so brightly, now lost, to the world's despair.
Music is special; it accompanies us through our entire lives; through life and death, love and loss, joy and sorrow.
But, when it compels you to do something you didn't think possible, write a poem for your lost sister, for example, It is no longer just special. It is magnificent.
Patrick Watson's 'Je Te Laisserai Des Mots' is about so much more than the loss of a loved one.
It's a woven tapestry of melancholic beauty, pleading for us to live a life of sensation rather than one of thought.
Lyrics
Watson disorientates the listener with melancholy-laced humming from the beginning - echoes of the conversations he can no longer enjoy with his partner, or, perhaps the sound of weeping in their absence.
It is a symphony of grief, a cathartic expression of affection, of heartbreak, and the fragility of the fleeting moments in love.
The song then falls quiet in contemplation, until he does what you never want to do, but often find that there is no other option. Express yourself, for that which you no longer have, futile as that may be.
LYRICS!!!!!
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Watson's lyrics begin to unfold like a long-lost love-letter.
Je te laisserai des mots,
en-sous de tas porte,
murs qui chantent.
I will leave you notes
Underneath your door
Under the singing walls
Delicately, Watson slowly colours his canvas of emotion with his lyrics.
The notes lie at the at the foot of your door, teh entrance to your life, then by the walls that weep for what once was, then where your feet pass, but don't rest, then on the sofa he once called his own.
In ultimate desperation, he then asks you for an instance of your time when you're alone.
Watson's craft lies in speaking to you, the listener, directly. He's leaving notes under your door, trying to get you to hear him, empathise with him, drawing you into his own romantic psychodrama, encouraging you to work through your own in the process.
Music Theory
Watson's ability to offer sensation is also built on foundations laid by his music.
Haunting piano arrangements, defined by the use of minor chords, create a melancholic, bittersweet atmosphere.
Notice how the dynamics shift throughout the song, mirroring the conflict between the pain of sadness, and the joy that preceded it.
Rich harmonies, singing in falsetto, accompanied by gentle crescendos and decrescendos, create a soundscape that is both intimate and yet impossibly expansive.
The piano, with its delicate keystrokes, is the emotional canvas on which strings, weaving a tapestry of melancholic beauty, build depth and complexity reflecting the emotions Watson is experiencing.
Je Te Laisserai des mots isn't just a triumph, it's a masterclass in sonic storytelling.
Ultimately, though, a sense of intimacy is what separates it.
For I think, within us all, there is an unwanted, and yet innate desire for the conflict Watson is living.
Je te laisserai des mots is less of a love-letter to romance, as it is a love letter to emotional sensation, good or bad.
After all, it is absence that offers value.
The fragility of life is what makes it so precious.
It is the absence of love that allows companionship to bring such joy.
At its heart, Je te laissaerai des mots is a reminder that the greatest object in life is Sensation.
To know we exist is to feel - whether in pain, ecstasy, grief or euphoriua.
It is a reminder of the privilige of being human;
of the fact that we should treasure the beauty of feeling, no matter how painful it may be.
and that, when we are able to pause in our busy lives, just for a moment, that we should all long for a life of sensations, rather than one of thoughts.
5 mins