Choosing a Song

After choosing my artist I had to chose a song for my music video. I had narrowed down the choice to three songs.

Lifeforms

'Lifeforms' is the fifth track on the 'If You Leave' album and runs for 5: 35 minutes. The song consists of gentle guitar and vocal reverb to create a relaxed and quite sound. It is not until four minutes into the song when drum is introduced to build it up to a climax. Additional electric guitar is added to create atmospheric tones.

The lyrics of the song are in true Daughter style with metaphors to create images that can be interpreted in anyway by the listener. The lyrics are as follows:

From the beginning

Small lifeforms

They can kill without warning

So you don't explode

Stop you growing limps and thinking

That you love them now you're blinking

And reminding her of him

Oh you steal his features

And your mother is a bleacher

She don't even feel the heat no

She don't even want to speak to you

But you, you always find another place to go

(Oh you) you always find another womb to grow, to grow, to grow

Well you can try to sink down deeply

And find the children lost at sea

Find the children who discretely

Were killed in infancy

To stop them holding you and screaming

That you'll lose your wildest dreaming

Still reminding me what I feel

How he left without reasons

But you, you always find another place to go

(Oh you) you always find another womb to grow, to grow, to grow

You can try to forget me but I won't let you easily

You can try to forget me but I won't let you easily

I'm floating out in the water and washed out to sea

Drifting away this time you'll regret you've conceived it

Clean up the dead you leave behind

Just like insects

Clean up the dead you leave behind

(Lyrics from azlyrics.com)

The lyrics have been perceived as everything from evolution to abandonment. Many different perceptions can be found on the song meaning website. It is good that the lyrics have different meanings as it means that I can find more conceptual ways to create a music video for it. However the song is too long which is a downfall. There is also a lot of repetition which can create a mellow and emotional tone but could also be boring.

Smoke

'Smoke' is the B-side track to 'Youth' from a limited edition version of the 'If You Leave' album. The song runs for  4:40 so is shorter than 'Lifeforms'. Electric guitar features heavily throughout the song but there is also drum, bass and piano. Just like 'Lifeforms', guitar reverb is used to create an atmospheric tone. The use of swelling music in the choruses means that the music video can also build and become more fast-paced. It creates an interesting effect that keeps the interest of the audience. 

The lyrics for 'Smoke' are less ambiguous than 'Lifeforms' but are still full of metaphorical language. The lyrics are as follows:

In a smoke filled room

With your father watching me

There's three doors and no keys

It's rising, it's choking me

In a smoke filled room

In a smoke filled room

There's a man with no face

Just a blurred out portrait

In a photo frame

I'm losing again, I'm losing my friend

He's face down on the pavement

Then a woman, she screams

It's a terrible night

As the mood changes to dark from light

Tell the doctor what's become of me

So you can analyse, analyse my dreams

Of a smoke filled room

Of a smoke filled room

And then we kiss and his lips turn into sand

And the whole of him cascades through my hands

Making a castle on the floor

Then I'm alone again

No keys and three doors 

And a smoke filled room

Now we're both in the room

And we're breathing the fumes

No doors this time, just a gap in the roof

Life floods in, heaven, we're blind

And slowly suffocating, we're dying

In a smoke filled room

We're dying in a smoke filled room

We're dying in a smoke filled room

(In a smoke filled room)

In a smoke filled room

In a smoke filled room

In a smoke filled room

(Lyrics from azlyrics.com)

There seems to be a theme among interpretations that it is about reflecting on a negative event. The 'smoke filled room' seems to be representative of being trapped or confined or possibly even to do with how she envisions the event in her dreams. Due to a stricter idea of what the lyrics are about it would give me less freedom to create a music video. 

Human

Human is the seventh song on the 'If You Leave' track-list and runs for a shorter time of  3:32 minutes. This song is rather fast-paced compared to the other chosen songs which makes for a more interesting and captivating music video.  Drums feature throughout the entire song unlike some other Daughter songs. Even the guitar is faster - paced and uses strumming rather than fingerpicking to make it sound louder and more impacting. 

The lyrics are often interpreted as something to do with hopelessness or being trapped in a certain mind-set. The lyrics are as follows:

Woken up like an animal

Teeth ready for sinking

My mind's lost in bleak visions

I've tried to escape but keep sinking

Limbs lost to a dead weight stake

Skull cage like a prison

And he's lost faith he'll ever see again

So may he once thought of me then

Underneath the skin there's a human

Buried deep within there's a human

And despite everything I'm still human

But I think I'm dying here

Woken up like an animal

I'm all ready for healing

My mind's lost with nightmares streaming

Woken up (kicking screaming)

Take me out of this place I'm in

Break me out of this shell-like case I'm in

Underneath the skin there's a human

Buried deep within there's a human

And despite everything I'm still human

I think that I'm still human [x3]

Underneath the skin there's a human

Buried deep within there's a human

And despite everything I'm still human

But I think I'm dying here