![]() I think this speaks to his relationship with a faith, and I assume without basis that it is Christianity. I tried to let it drain, but my veins are hopeless” Wrestling doubt I’ve been dragging around for ages Withering down to the champagne quicksand “Cause since I’ve been found, I’ve been living a life in cages The pre-chorus for me put things into perspective: There’s a consistent attempt to paint something ordinarily bad as attractive. “Sand dunes” are symbols of isolation in a desert but they are lyrically painted here with beauty, so much as to be “quilted”. Aside that also, there is an imagery paradox. “Bourbon in my coffee cup”? As in, you have alcohol for breakfast? Or perhaps, does it also double as a vessel that contains something it shouldn’t? But let’s backtrack to the beginning.Īside the tone of vulnerability, I see a slight allusion to the horsemen of the apocalypse. And for addiction, he uses bourbon, a metaphor for the metaphor of alcoholism addiction in all its glorious absurdity. And I think all that’s on Chandra so far is mine as well.) It’s like an addiction to unbelief. (Side note: if you try to cross-check my analyses using, you will probably find that they correspond…because I annotated this song. =(īourbon sounds to me like it’s by a speaker who struggles with his attachment to atheism/agnosticism/rejection of the faith. Imagine how shocked I was to find out Bourbon was an alcohol, as opposed to the supposedly innocent chocolate biscuits I know from Ghana. In chronological order as they appear on the album, they are: Bourbon (4), Bone + Tissue (5), and Chandra (15). My focus on what I assume to be his spiritual journey will focus on 3 songs that stood out to me. And of course it only makes sense that in an exploration of science and meaning, spirituality will be a frequent stop – like a popular company that has gas stations planted every few kilometers. A large percentage of Ology’s imagery is extra-terrestrial that is, goes beyond earth, to the moon, other planets, the galaxy, the gods. And Gallant makes it clear that he and his mind are out of this world. I think it goes as far as the question of bare existence. Ology seems to be an exploration of science – what “it” means. Technically, science – and I choose to pronounce that as “shee-ence” as in omniscience and conscience. So what I love about Gallant’s Ology album is that the whole project feels like that in-between period, which so many people are scared to display, for fear of condemnation – presented marvelously in metaphor. We like to limit ourselves to understandings of “Okay, they’re in. I remember, many months ago, something or the other (I think it was Kanye West) triggered a social media rant from Andy Mineo, who made very valid points about the way the world, especially including Christians, don’t like to accept the spiritual status of someone who is searching, as “searching”. Don’t tell a lexivist what to do with words.) But in his interviews, I think I’ve seen him smile twice and laugh twice so I can sort of breathe now and let go of the fear that he’s going to kill himself any second. (And yes, I will insist right now that the latter qualifies as an emotion. I doubted he was human because he writes nearly exclusively in imagery and metaphor, and his trademark is a yellow sadface! I honestly started to fear that sadness and stone-facedness were his only emotions. He released an EP or something before these but I haven’t looked for it). I had my doubts when I listened to his album Ology (the only body of work of his I have heard. I am glad that, after watching some of those documentaries/interviews, I can say that Gallant is human. I legit spend a significant amount of time watching just about any Gallant interview or documentary I can find, and I memorize his lyrics and decode them at my leisure. ![]() But I haven’t fully fallen into obsession this fast since Jon Bellion. Disclaimer: Anything I say as part of my interpretations could possibly be partially to entirely wrong.Īs I write this, I must admit I have known of Gallant, the RnB singer, for just about a month or so (note: I wrote this way earlier than I am posting this).
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