#212 White Lies
Once I start, I can’t stop listening to White Lies’ music. The first song of their debut album it’s beautiful. Rock music starts, more melodic and happier than what I usually listen to. The singer is on a plane asking himself about how an airplane flies. He questions, “could there be love beneath these wings?” He then starts describing a possible panic attack, perhaps a fear of flying. The song is called “Death”.
In their first two albums, they have several references to death even though they are not a gloom-and-doom band. Most of their music is happy. There is the song “To Lose My Life” with the lines, “let’s grow old together / and die at the same time” (I wish). Or there is “Unfinished Business” where the singer is a ghost telling his loved one, “there is a light in the distance waiting for me / I will wait for you / so get off your low, let’s kiss like we used to”. This last song made me weep a bit even when Janne was healthy and we were happy. Imagine now.
White Lies taught me also that you don’t let moments go. In 2011 they played in Tallinn. I was asking myself if I should go to the gig. Janne was pregnant and wouldn’t have gone, but she wouldn’t have minded if I had. We were living just a 10-minute walk from the venue. But I didn’t go and it stayed as a little regret. I learned since to take any chance as life is short.
Their third album, “Big TV” is a happy one. There are almost no references to the afterlife (although they still have “Heaven Wait”). It was also truly happy for us. On a starry night during the Autumn of 2013, I was waiting for a red light to change (Kloostrimetsa and Merivälja streets if you ask). The singer starts quietly: “slow / I’m gonna settle down slow / down to the hum of / electric hum and soul”. And then the happy instrumentation came in.
At that time, Daniel had just been born, Trevor was growing steadily, we had just gotten our house and Janne was just there. I was rushing with an errand to get back to her. I’ve learned that happiness is not a state, but a fleeting moment that you have to appreciate when it comes. Big TV reminds me that we had at least one. So I won’t stop listening to White Lies now.
