Peaceful the World Lays Me Down

Noah and the Whale's debut album, Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down, was released in the United States September 16, 2008. The same day as the 85 billion dollar government bailout to AIG and the death of Motown songwriter Norman Whitfield, who wrote many of the Temptations's big hits. I had just turned twenty-two. I threw myself a glorious party, complete with tequila shots, a procession of cakes, and slow dancing to Ben Fold's cover of Bitches Ain't Shit with tiara askew. But I wouldn't happen upon Noah and the Whale's album until the next year, around Easter.

In the spring of 2009, smarting from a slew of fresh failures, I went to St. Gregory's Abbey to get some solid footing and I remember listening to this album (which I had probably downloaded during my stint as a WVFI DJ) while I was there. I didn't and don't usually listen to music while I'm at the Abbey, and I'm not sure why I made the exception during that visit, but I immediately loved the album. It's still a go to cure for those really awfully hopeless days where the world is very dark and drab. Listening to that album helped the writing that I did at the Abbey turn out much brighter than I felt at that time. I remember writing a birthday poem for Sam, inspired by maybe one or all of the songs but today we're just going to talk about the title track.

Lyrics:
Oh, well it's hard to look deep into your soul. Not everything you find will be perfect gold.
There are ghosts and demons that hide in the dark. Oh, they wait till I find love and then they laugh.
Oh, they know that my body is no way good enough know that my heart is no way strong enough
to bear the sorrow that love brings. When I coil in fear, oh, the demons sing

It's a hollow love for a heart with no blood in its veins.

Oh, it's a hollow love for a heart with no blood in its veins.

Oh, there is no endless devotion, that is free from the force of erosion.
Oh, and if you don't believe in God, how can you believe in love?
When we're all just matter that will one day scatter,
when peaceful the world lays us down.

Oh and finding love is a matter of luck, oh and unsettled lovers move from fuck to fuck.
Oh, and compare their achievements like discussing bereavements
And compare their abrasions with romantic quotations,
Oh, as peaceful, the world watches down.

But oh we were blown out of the water. Oh, and we walk on the feet we have grown.
Oh we were given a heart, of which love was a part.
Oh, and we call it the thing from which all life will spring.
And it gave value to the world that surrounds us

But we consider the world just for a moment Oh and it's gone before we even know
Oh but I'll follow it round yeah I'll follow it round Oh I'll follow it round yeah I'll follow it round
Till peaceful, the world lays me down

When I first heard this song I was approaching a particular boundary in my life. I was moving from being dead to being alive. Or I guess more appropriately, wanting to be dead to wanting to be alive. In fact it took almost a year to really want to be alive again. I think the willingness to live is strongly connected to the ability to love oneself. And I think what makes trauma, sin basically, so devastating is that it inhibits the ability to love... perhaps especially to love oneself. But this is just my personal experience and opinion. I struggle with loving myself consistently. I don't think I am alone in that struggle. More importantly, I am not alone in loving myself.

Progression is one of the things I love about this song. The sense of progression from beginning to end until the song feels like a snake eating its own tail. The song feels whole to me. Charlie Fink's understated vocals betraying the emotional swell of the lyrics and instruments. And when he sings of love in this song, I think of self love mainly, just because it makes the most sense to me that way. I want this song played when I die (of natural causes, many years from now) at the wake, not the funeral. And on a brighter note, I enjoy listening to this song on the way home, especially if I will go to bed as soon as I get there. It's a good end of the day song. I find it reassuring, and honest, and most of all encouraging.