Fragile
After Psychosis, it might seem odd that the Poets follow up with a musical 180. From the hard-rocking paeon to the nihilistic and the manipulative, we open up with a gentle, slow guitar opening, the sort of thing that’s usually one of the Poets love songs.
It almost makes the opening line comforting. “You’ve been biting bullets all the years. And I’m there beside yourself chokin’ on tears. And you aced avoidin’ possibility… when you placed your bets on bittersweet!”
Almost.
However, the chorus tells us what’s up right away. “Now don’t you worry, no need to be sorry, time to step lightly…. ‘Cause the love you used to feel is still there inside! It may be a faded photograph, but I know you care. So don’t hide, if you’re scared I’m here beside you, if you’re lost I’m here to guide you, and I give you peace when peace is fragile. Love is all the good in you, love is peace when peace… is fragile.”
That’s why the song has the comforting, gentle sound to it. THis *is* supposed to be a song of reassurance, of quiet affection and love for the subject. Unlike the Ultimate Fling, this isn’t a song of desperate futility and frustration… it’s a song meant for the mourning, for those who are still enduring the grief of a relationship that’s ended, whether willingly or otherwise.
If not for the probable gender differences between the subject of this long and of the Ultimate Fling, you could almost see this song as an answer to the earlier one, trying to comfort the original singer, reassuring him that actual love is still in the offering, and that he was right to get out of it when he did. We’re beginning to form up a possible ‘storyline’ to the album, but we’ll revisit that idea later… for now, next week, Clevermind.
